A big shout out to Carly Burton of Freedom Massachusetts and Mason Dunn of the MTPC who have done a tremendous amount of legwork and lobbying to make sure this passes. A tremendous thank you to Jacquelyn Ryan, the first transgendered elected official in Massachusetts for all her hard work and the countless other activists from Gigi Gill in my new hometown of Salem to the Republican parents who put pressure on the Governor.
The fight is not over, the ball is now in the Speaker’s court and we will see if DeLeo’s actions are as bold as his words.
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he hasn’t exactly come out and said he won’t veto. But he has come pretty close.
He is about 9/10ths of the way there. And it would be stabbing these advocates who are celebrating in the back. Now I agree with porcupine, DeLeo should send a clean bill and get the transphobes in his own caucus brought to heel.
he has never committed to vetoing the bill (or signing it for that matter)
I think this whole issue falls squarely on the legislature, it is their responsibility to pass the bill for Gov Baker to sign. Sure it would be nice for Gov Baker to be cheerleading the effort, but the legislature needs to pass it first. I want to see where they all stand on the issue, the legislature and Gov Baker.
But a Governor by definition is the executive in this commonwealth tasked with leading rather than following on important issues. It definitely made a difference in my primary vote that Deval was for marriage equality and willing to defend it as my Governor.
Charlie Baker defied his base and nominated an LGBT LG and was the first major Repbublican office holder to come into office favoring marriage equality. He did so before Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. This was an easy issue for him to take a early lead on, the real problem has always been the holdouts and throwbacks within the Democratix caucus.
Everybody knows this, and removing the veto threat forces the ball back into DeLeo’s court. This isn’t a slam dunk yet, but it’s an issue that should be an easy layup for this legislature and let’s see if the House has the will to do the right thing. The Governor just removed their biggest excuse for doing nothing.
is the true leader of the state, regardless of what party hold the corner office.