Transgender rights bill headed for crucial votes in Mass. Legislature

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Proponents of a bill that adds transgender people to the list of groups protected under the state’s civil rights laws said this afternoon that they are lobbying members of the Legislature as they prepare for a House vote and a potential Senate vote this week.

The bill has languished in the Legislature for nearly six years. But a top House lawmaker promised today that the Judiciary Committee would vote on the bill in time for a debate on the House floor this week. Opponents plan to hold a press conference Tuesday.

“This is a historic step forward,” said Representative Carl M. Sciortino Jr., a Medford Democrat who co-sponsored the bill.

Advocates said transgender people are subject to discrimination and physical violence. The bill would extend to them protections against housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and credit discrimination. The bill would also add gender identification to the state’s hate crimes law.

Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, told the story of a transgender woman who felt physically threatened in her apartment and had to move as she transitioned into a woman, and then was asked to leave a hairdressing school. Scott said there are 33,000 people who identify as transgender in the state.

“This is the equivalent of Fenway Park,” he said.

He said 15 other states have legal protections, as do more than 100 cities and towns around the country.

The bill that will be debated will not have controversial language that protected transgender people in public accommodations, which had led critics to label it the “bathroom bill.”

“The bill is not perfect, but this is a critical step,” Sciortino said.

Representative Byron Rushing, a Boston Democrat and co-sponsor, said the bill is in line with protections for other oppressed groups.

“This is a group that has been discriminated for a long time,” Rushing said.