As you probably heard this morning, “An Act Relative to Transgender Rights” H502/S764 will be voted on Tuesday or Wednesday. The Young Democrats of Massachusetts voted during the past two legislative cycles to endorse the bill. Here’s some recent testimony the Young Democrats provided to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of the bill. This important anti-discrimination bill has spent years in committee and it is time that we gave transgender residents in Massachusetts equal protections under the law. This civil rights legislation will add “gender identity and expression” to existing laws; as no individual should be discriminated against when searching for employment, applying for housing, trying to receive an education, and most importantly when seeking protection against violent hate crimes.
Now’s the time to be a champion for equality. Take 2 minutes and send an e-mail to your legislators. The Young Democrats have made it easy, all you have to do is enter your address. If you have five minutes, give them a call too! Finally, if you are available tonight, please join members of the Young Democrats of Massachusetts at MassEquality for a phone bank to push this bill over the top. We’ll be at MassEquality’s HQ 262 Washington St, 7th FloorBoston, MA 02108 from 6 to 9PM, but people will be there all day making calls.
If you needed more motivation to get off the sideline on this one, nearly a dozen Republican legislators came out against the bill today. No surprise there. And the money line:
“As he was leaving, Lombardo was confronted by a Quincy couple — Ken and Marcia Garber — who said their transgender son was bullied and discriminated against before he lost his life to a drug overdose at the age of 20. Lombardo said he did not have time to answer their questions because he was late to a meeting.”
Join a number of wonderful organizations (e.g., MassEquality, MTPC, YDM) that have worked hard to see this bill passed.
Thanks John, for posting! I signed it!
Does it really take all day for multiple people to call 180 legislators?
The phone banks are to call voters and encourage them to contact their legislators. If we were callling the legislators directly, you are correct we’d get that done pretty fast.