Massachusetts Could Reaffirm or Repeal its 2016 Anti-Discrimination Restroom Bill
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What the Initiative Does
Massachusetts Question 3 would uphold Senate Bill 2407 (SB 2407), which established a law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in public places like hotels, restaurants, and stores in 2016. The law Question 3 would uphold requires access to areas segregated by gender, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, to be allowed based on an individual’s self-identified gender identity. A “no” vote on this measure would overturn this law.
In Favor
Massachusetts is a national leader on equality. The anti-discrimination law should be preserved, as its rollback goes against this heritage and could also lead to increased harassment of transgender and otherwise gender non-conforming individuals.
Opposed
There aren’t enough people who are affected by discrimination in their choice of restroom to justify this bill. SB 2407 doesn’t do enough to protect public safety in cases where someone takes advantage of the law for improper reasons.
In-Depth
Freedom for All Massachusetts is leading the campaign in support of Question 3 with the support of Gov. Charlie Baker (R), ACLU Massachusetts, the National Association of Social Workers, GLAD, and more. Freedom Massachusetts argues that protections for transgender persons are needed due to the percentage of transgender people in Massachusetts who have reported experiencing harassment in places of public accommodation. Phil Sherwood, campaign manager at Freedom For All Massachusetts, says that:
“Massachusetts is seen as a leader nationally on equal rights and standing up for the safety and dignity of all residents. Whether it’s Marriage Equality, bullying or standing up to outside hate groups – Massachusetts has earned the reputation on being on the right side of many important issues. If this anti-discrimination law is stripped here in Massachusetts outside groups will much more aggressive taking their agenda to other states in an effort to target minority groups for exclusion… Many people though do not completely understand what it means to be transgender or know why these equal protection laws were needed in the first place. This creates a scenario where outside special interest groups can push fear-based misinformation campaigns under the guise of protecting the public from predators. Those seeking to repeal this antidiscrimination law seek to single out people who are different and push an agenda that undermines fairness. Their actions foster an environment where kids in particular are more likely to be harassed for being different.”
Keep MA Safe, which backed the signature petition effort that qualified this veto referendum for the ballot, is leading the campaign against Question 3 with the support of the Massachusetts Family Institute. Keep MA safe argues that the transgender bathroom law was passed under false premises:
“What the citizens of Massachusetts weren’t told was that there were only a handful of allegations of such denial of access to public accommodations and that those claims were already covered under state law. What changed on October first of last year was access to bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing facilities. It is now a potential criminal civil rights violation for a woman or young girl to object when a biological male undresses next to her in a public facility. This is not progress for our Commonwealth. We should not require women to sacrifice their privacy for the sake of sexual charades. Unfortunately, this is exactly what we’ve seen happen in the last year. In December, a woman was photographed by a man lurking in the ladies’ room of a T.J. Maxx in Plainville, MA. When she asked employees for help, they seemed torn regarding what to do. Do they call the police, and risk being brought up on hate crimes charges? Or do they protect themselves and their employer by looking the other way and side with the man over the frightened woman? The law is now weighted to benefit those who would violate private spaces. How many cases go unreported?”
However, these concerns were taken into account when drafting the existing transgender bathroom access law, which defines gender identity as “a person’s gender-related identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related identity or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person’s physiology or assigned sex at birth” that’s also “sincerely held as part of a person’s core identity.” The law includes a provision directing the state Attorney General to provide guidance on dealing with anyone who asserts a gender identity for an “improper purpose.”
In September 2016, the state AG’s office directed that when “an employee of a public accommodation has reasonable grounds to believe that a person, regardless of gender identity, is engaged in improper or unlawful conduct,” they should do whatever they would normally do to address the situation, including asking the patron to leave or calling security or law enforcement.
Summary by Lorelei Yang
(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / marrio31)
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