Majority Of Mass Transgender Folks Remain Invisible

A positive step for Transgender state employees in Massachusetts, but it leaves everyone else out in the cold and invisible to discrimination. Patrick signs order for transgender equality; will legislature pick up the baton? Posted by Carol Rose, On Liberty February 18, 2011 11:00 AM ACLU of Massachusetts Legislative Counsel Gavi Wolfe wrote the following guest blog. Not everybody can put pen to paper and advance equality with a few loopty-loops, so it’s wonderful to see a chief executive use the power of his signature to help bend the arc of history in the right direction. Yesterday, Governor Patrick signed a landmark Executive Order to prohibit discrimination against transgender people in state employment and executive branch contracts. As a result, Massachusetts joins a growing number of states and companies with household names whose executives have taken a similar step. The governor should be applauded for stepping up, doing the right thing, and reaffirming the Commonwealth’s longstanding commitment to civil rights and equality for all Massachusetts residents. It doesn’t take a genius (or a bleeding heart liberal) to realize that the state has an important role to play in providing an equal opportunity for all hardworking people, including transgender people, to make a living and provide for themselves and their families. The Commonwealth benefits when its employees can do their jobs without fear of being fired for reasons that have nothing to do with their job performance. For families, fairness, and the fisc, it’s win-win-win. Unfortunately, an Executive Order only goes so far. It’s not a law, so it doesn’t – it can’t – enable people who have been discriminated against to take their claims to court. And it only reaches state employees and contracts. It doesn’t increase protections for people working or looking for work in the private sector; doesn’t protect people’s access to housing or credit. It won’t protect transgender people from the all-too-routine violence and harassment they face when trying to complete the most mundane activities of daily life that most of us take for granted – running errands, going to work, shopping or dining out at restaurants. For the rest of the equality enchilada, we need legislation. Now if only we could find a bill that would right all these wrongs in one fell swoop, a bill that would do something really simple and elegant like add the phrase “gender identity and expression” to the panoply of existing Massachusetts civil rights laws… Ah, yes. Governor Patrick took a great first step. Now it’s time for the state legislature to finish the job by passing the Transgender Equal Rights bill. It’s a commonsense piece of legislation that will make it easier for hundreds of people to earn a living, support themselves and their families and live more safely. Here’s to a day in the near future when the governor can sign that bill into law with a few more well-placed loopty-loops. This blog is not written or edited by Boston.com or the Boston Globe. The author is solely responsible for the content. Original article