This past Thursday evening, ay a dinner for the Empire State Pride Agenda Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that, through executive action, he had added transgender and gender nonconforming people to New York's Human Rights Law of 1945.
They are debating our rights again in Massachusetts. I hate when that happens. It always makes me feel so scummy.
The legislators are discussing H. 1577 and S. 735 which would increase the scope of the current anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender people in public places.
Currently it is illegal to refuse to hire someone who is transgender but totally legal to refuse to provide service to that same person.
Massachusetts lawmakers in 2011 passed a law adding transgender individuals to the list of protected classes from employment or housing discrimination, but stopped short of including public accommodations protections. Other states — 17 in total — have passed similar laws offering such expanded protections.
More than 50 businesses, including Google, Harvard Pilgrim Health, and Eastern Bank, as well as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Massachusetts Hospital Association, and the YWCA of Boston have thrown their support behind a bill aimed at protecting transgender people from discrimination in public accommodations.
On the opposing side are Governor Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts Family Institute.
Though hailed at the time as a "major victory," it was not a total success.
The bill did not include language to protect transgender people in public accommodations, which advocates had sought. They will continue to fight to expand transgender protections to include public accommodations, such as hotels, restaurants, and clubs, she said. Opponents had decried those proposals as “the bathroom bill,’’ arguing that they would enable biological men to demand access to women’s restrooms and locker rooms.
Anti-discrimination protection in public accommodations was just perceived as going a bridge too far.
