Massachusetts Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Trans Protections Bill

You longtime TransGriot readers know I've been extremely critical about Massachusetts passing a public accommodations free trans rights bill in November 2011 that I considered problematic.

The words I used to describe its passage at the time was 'moldy civil rights bread.'

It's now five years later, and the Massachusetts State Senate finally got to trans human rights business and passed SB 735, which adds explicit public accommodations protections for trans residents of Massachusetts including parks, restaurants, hospitals and public restrooms..  

The bill passed on a lopsided 33-4 vote in the Democratically controlled Senate and now moves to the Democratically controlled  Massachusetts House.

"It is our responsibility to advance these provisions when there is clearly evidence that transgender people can and are being discriminated against,"said Senate President Stanley Rosenberg in a BuzzFeed News interview before the vote..

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) after a contentious April 13 meeting, so far has indicated after hemming and hawing for a while that he won't veto it if it hits his desk. .

GENDA Overwhelmingly Passes NY Assembly For Ninth Consecutive Time!

In the wake of the historic press conference in which Attorney General Loretta Lynch and head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division Vanita Gupta countersued the state of North Carolina for the unjust HB 2,  in New York State they were celebrating the announcement that the Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act (GENDA) has passed the New York State Assembly for the ninth consecutive time.

GENDA if passed would protect New Yorkers from discrimination based on their gender identity or expression in employment, housing and education..

Once again, the vote wasn't close in the Democratically controlled New York State Assembly, in which they hold a 103-47 supermajority,.  GENDA (A-4558b/S-0061b) passed on a 81-46 vote.

"This legislation represents the Assembly's continues commitment to protecting all New Yorkers from discriminatory practices," said NY Assembly Speaker Carl Hastie.  "It is unconscionable that neither the federal or state government have declared discrimination against transgender individuals illegal.  This bill addresses that injustice."

'Transgender rights are human rights," said Chairman Richard Gottfried, sponsor of the bill. "it's an embarrassment to New Yorkers that 18 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws barring discrimination on the basis of gender identity, while GENDA can't even get a vote in our State Senate.  While North Carolina and other states try to roll back progress by attacking transgender rights, New York should stand up for common sense, fairness and justice,"  

But the problem for GENDA has consistently been since 2007 that the bill has gone to the Republican controlled New York Senate, and hasn't even gotten a floor vote because it keeps getting killed in committee..

Hopeful this will finally be the year in which Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) uses some of that political capital and his bully pulpit to get it done like he did on gay marriage.

It is now in the New York Senate's Investigations and Government Operations Committee.  The entire nation will be watching to see if this will be the year that GENDA actually gets out of committee and gets and up or down vote in the GOP controlled  Senate.

TransGriot PervWatch- The Tennessee GOP Sexual Harasser

As we've noted on these electronic pages and elsewhere on the Net, there has been a GOP legislative attack on the trans community spread across several states in reaction to their pissivity over the Obergefell SCOTUS ruling.

In Tennessee, the attack on transpeople legislation has been co-sponsored by state Rep. Jeremy Durham (R-Franklin), who has pimped the debunked lie that cisgender men would 'pretend' to be transgender in order to gain access to the women's bathroom.

Well, it turns out that the Tennessee GOP would be better off passing laws to protect women from Rep Durham and his like minded harassers..

Rep. Durham, who is one of the co-sponsors of the unjust HB 2414 has been accused of harassing 34 women, and was declared by Attorney General Herbert Slatery III  (R) in a warning he issued after investigating the complaints to be "a continuing risk to unsuspecting women who are employed by or interact with the legislature.".  

"With few exceptions, the women who related incidents felt they could not report Representative Durham's behavior because nothing could be done and they didn't want to lose their jobs or be considered 'untrustworthy' by employers, clients or legislators," said AG Slatery

In response to the warning from the Attorney General,  Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) had the trans oppressor exiled from his office in the War Memorial Building, moved to the first floor of the Rachel Jackson Building and limited his access to the Legislative Plaza, the second floor of the state capitol building and those buildings for 'official legislative business only'.

Durham has resigned from his positions as the House majority whip and in the Republican legislative caucus, and will be the only legislator with an office in the Rachel Jackson Building.  There have been bipartisan calls for his resignation which he has ignored, so it will be up to his district to decide in November if they want to be continued to be represented by a sexual harasser.

But this is just another example of what we have been saying in Trans World.   Those who have been squawking the loudest in pushing for these unjust laws aimed at the trans community and repeating the lie about phantom trans sexual predators to get them passed have turned out to be as they are investigated the real sexual predators.  

SD House Fails To Override HB 1008

If you thought the drama over HB 1008 was over when Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) vetoed the bill Tuesday, well it wasn't. 

Never underestimate the eager determination of Republicans and the outside groups pushing the unjust bills to oppress a downtrodden group.  They've made it clear that oppressing trans people is on the legislative agenda for their party in 2016. 

One of the reasons the anti-trans hate groups like the Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defending Freedom chose South Dakota for this fight is because the Republicans in the Mount Rushmore State have had decades long supermajorities in both houses.  They have controlled the 70 member South Dakota House since 1976, and the 35 member South Dakota Senate since 1996.

The Republican controlled House attempted to jump start the process today of overriding the governor's veto.  They needed to get two-thirds of the House members to vote for the override resolution, and then do the same in the senate in order to successfully override Gov. Daugaard's veto and make HB 1008 law.

The vote to override in the SD House went 36-29 with five abstentions, which means it failed to get the necessary two-thirds support. to send it to the senate and turn this unjust bill attacking the humanity of SD trans kids into an unjust law.

Translation: HB 1008 is DEAD!

They failed thanks to the determined efforts of South Dakota based trans people, advocates at the local, state and national level and their allies. 

But there is still one more anti-trans bill, HB 1112 still percolating in the South Dakota legislature we have to keep our eyes on that is attacking our trans kids.

I hope the South Dakota legislature will see the wisdom of not attacking the humanity of trans kids and let that unjust bill suffer the same fate.

 

KY Rep. Marzian Files Bill Requiring Spousal Permission & Doctors Visits To Get Erectile Dysfunction Drugs

Mary Lou Marzian was my state rep during the nearly nine years I was living as a Texan in Exile in Louisville, and while I was there had a chance to talk legislative shop with her and see her at other events during my time in Kentucky.

Her day job when she's not bouncing to Frankfort to look out for the interests of her constituents is as a registered nurse, and as you probably guessed she wasn't happy with the 'informed consent' bill the boys in the KY legislature overwhelmingly passed on January 28 and Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed into law.

To register her disgust with the Commonwealth of Kentucky inserting themselves in the private health decisions of the women living in the state, Marzian on February 11 filed HB 396. a bill that would require men in the commonwealth who wanted an erectile dysfunction drug like Viagra or Cialis to get a sworn and dated letter from his spouse, make two office visits with a medical practitioner and make a sworn statement with his hand on the  swear Bible that he will only use the erectile dysfunction drugs while engaged with sexual relations with his current spouse.

In an interview, Rep Marzian said while HB 396 is tongue in cheek, the issue she is highlighting in government interference in women's health decisions

"Maybe it will wake some people up in this state to say, "Hey wait a minute, where are they going with seven abortion bills?'"

Go get 'em Rep. Marzian!

Ding Dong, The Texas Anti-TBLG Bills Are DEAD!

It's Sine Die for the 84th Texas Legislature, and it's official!  All the 24 anti--TBLG bills filed, including the 4 anti-trans ones are dead as of 12:01 AM for this session!

Took a lot of cooperative intersectional work to make it happen, but the Texas TBLG community, our advocacy organizations, the hardworking people in them, our citizen lobbyists, and our allies pulled it off.

And many of y'all Texas bashers thought we couldn't do it.   But we did.

The 85th Texas Legislative session won't happen until 2017, so we can exhale and prepare for another battle to come.  We'll also be on guard for Gov Abbott calling special sessions between now and then as well.

Yeah, and if he does, Equality Texas, TENT and 'errbody' else has my number.

Last Day Of The 84th Texas Legislature

When this 84th Texas Legislature session started in January, the Texas TBLG community was facing the daunting prospect of 24 filed punitive anti-BTLG bills.  Four of those bills were aimed at criminalizing being transgender in the Lone Star State for our trans kids and adults.

People outside our state expected them to all pass seeing that we had a House with a 98-52 GOP edge, a 20-11 Republican advantage in the senate, and a new governor and lieutenant governor eager to placate the Tea Party wing.

But they misunderestimated our will to kill all of those bills, and especially the will of the Texas transgender community to make the Riddle and Pena anti-trans bills go away.

The LGBT pundits on the coasts also didn't note that we Texans had several huge advantages going into this battle.   The 2016 NCAA Men's Final Four and Super Bowl LI in 2017 are slated for Houston.  We had a unified effort from several statewide LGBT organizations that had been organizing since November the Texas GLBT community would be playing defense in this session.

While the GOP had the numbers, the Democratic minority in the House and Senate had the legislative experience and seniority, and masterfully used the Texas legislative rules and parliamentary procedure to stall and thwart the egregiously bad bills at critical points.

It was a team effort that took several lobby days scheduled throughout the session of which yours truly attended two of them, people calling their state legislators and senators, cooperation between several state organizations, partnerships with out Texas business community, and yeoman's work by our lobbyists in Austin.    It also didn't hurt that the disastrous publicity and economic damage to their economy that happened in the wake of Indiana passing their discriminatory RFRA got the Texas Lege's attention.  

Because of all that work and some fortuitous events, we go into the final hours of the 2015 session with those anti-TBLG bills dead for this session and the GOP oppressors being put in the position of passing a meaningless Texas senate resolution declaring marriage is between one man and one woman.


Short of any last minute attempts at amendments to bills further along in the legislative process, and the Texas legislative rules are strict about amendments this late in the session being attached to germane bills, we Texas LGBT folks will watch the clock strike midnight CDT for sine die and can mercifully exhale.

But TBLG Texans eyes will be nervously turned toward Austin all day until that moment.

LA State Senator Rips Jindal A New One

In 2005, after the Texas Legislature passed that unjust constitutional marriage ban, Texas State Rep Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) let loose with a memorable floor speech excoriating it.

Ten years later, east of the Sabine River in Baton Rouge, State Senator Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans)  took to the Louisiana Senate floor to rip Governor Bobby Jindal (R) for his unjust executive order intended to do an end run around the Louisiana Legislature to institute HB 707, a 'right to discriminate' law the Legislature rejected and the Louisiana business community didn't want.

But since Piyush is running for president on the GOP side, in his attempt to pander to Iowa social conservafool voters, he decided to unilaterally issue this executive order.that all the states competing with Louisiana for Super Bowls, Final Fours and other convention business are saying thank you very much for your stupidity.

Here's Senator Peterson's floor speech.

Nevada Unjust Anti-Trans Bill Dies!

AB 375 the GOP dominated Nevada legislature's attempt to attack trans kids failed Monday night on a mainly party line vote.

Five Republicans, Pat Hickey, Derek Armstrong, Glenn Trowbridge, Robin Titus and Melissa Woodbury voted with the all the Nevada Assembly Democrats to kill the unjust bill on a 22-20 vote.

The transphobic measure, sponsored by Assemblyman Ira Hansen (R)  would have required students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that corresponded to their genitalia, as well as require schools to provide separate facilities for transgender and intersex students.

Opponents said the bill would lead to additional bullying and targeting of trans students in Nevada schools.

"This bill flies in the face of everything this Legislature should stand for, and it harkens back to a time when telling people they were different was accepted," Democratic Assemblywoman Heidi Swank said.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) spokeswoman Mari St. Martin said earlier that the governor was closely monitoring the bill and had strong concerns with legislation that "targets students based on their gender expression, or potentially sanctions discrimination."

Tuesday was the deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin, so that means AB 375 is dead for this session.  

But as you know, vanillacentric privileged GOP oppressor never give up when it comes to exercising their oppressor gene, and he wishes to try to make this issue a ballot initiative or tlke it to the local level.

So great work Nevada trans community and allies.   Celebrate your win, and prepare for the next round.

Unjust TX HB 2801 Bill Must Die

Yesterday the Texas Transkid Bounty Bill, HB 2801 was scheduled to receive a hearing in the State Affairs Committee.  

It was one of the bills I lobbied against Monday, and Jessica Farrar, my state rep is on state affairs.  They have already seen my smiling face in their ATX office, and will hear from me again soon.

Pena's other legislative travesty attacking transkids in HB 2802 and Debbie Does Discrimination Riddle's unjust bills criminalizing being trans in Texas (HB 1747 and HB1748) have also been assigned to State Affairs but as of this writing don't have a hearing date set.

But back to the more important ones criminalizing and putting a bounty on trans kids in HB 2801

We are already facing the unacceptable situation of 85% of Texas trans* students being harassed in schools.   46% of Texas transgender students have experienced physical assault.  9% have experienced sexual assault.   11% of Texas trans students drop out because of these issues.

And Rep. Gilbert Pena (R-Pasadena) has proposed two bills that don't solve these problems, but exacerbate them? 

This unjust HB 2801 bill is also in violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools, and transpeople are covered in Title IX. 

This unjust bill will also cost cash-strapped Texas school districts thousands of dollars.

Rep  Pena came before the committee yesterday in a hearing room packed with transpeople, parents of trans kids and other supporters and asked the State Affairs Committee not to hear it yesterday because he is rewriting the bill. 

The State Affairs committee hearing on HB 2801 has been until next week, so that gives us time to build the pressure to kill it.  We do have allies on that committee who don't like those unjust bills either.  

So it's time to do something to help our trans kids.  If you want to help them, pick up your smartphone and call the members of the State Affairs Committee and let them know you oppose this bill.   If you are a constituent of these state affairs committee members, even better because you have heightened clout and influence in this situation.   Same goes if you are a mother, mother of a trans child, teacher, or school administrator..

These bills attacking our trans kids in a school setting and offering bounties targeting them are not only unjust, but do nothing to help Texas create a climate conducive to learning.   Texas teachers and school administrators should not be put in the position of policing gender identity.

Transphobia Rep Pena, is not good for business.   Those unjust bills will have a deleterious effect on attracting corporations and talented people to the Lone Star State.    

Don't need trans hate in the Lone Star State!

The Lege and Rep. Pena need to expeditiously find out what happens when you mess with Texas transkids.  Call, write and e-mail them.

And yes HB 2801 needs to die.

Moni's Excellent Texas Freedom Advocacy Lobby Day

Yesterday I got up at the crack of dawn to make the two hour ride from Houston to our state capitol to join other TBLG Texans in opposing the GOP controlled legislature's attempts to legislate anti-BTLG hatred in the Lone Star State.

After scooping me up at Casa de Monica, TS Williams, Lou Weaver and I made that journey to our state capital and joined over two hundred people from across Texas, student leaders from the Texas Freedom Network, LGBT advocates from Equality Texas,  HRC supporters and volunteers and other concerned Texans for Freedom Advocacy Day in Austin.

While there have been over 20 anti-GLBT bills filed by Teapublican legislators in this 2015 Texas Legislative session, on the plus side there are also 12 pro-TBLG bills that deserved our support.

After TS, Lou and I arrived at the Capitol Visitors Parking garage, we walked across the south capitol grounds , we headed to the First Methodist Church for a training session and our group assignments.   Because I've been coming to Austin since 1999 to do lobbying trips, and was just in the city last month to hit some offices, I was given the responsibility by Cavan O Raghallaigh to lead a lobby team.

After the training by Daniel Williams of Equality Texas, some role playing and lunch, we headed to a noon rally on the north steps of the capitol in which openly gay Rep. Mary Gonzales (D-Clint) and Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City) spoke before we headed off to hit our assigned offices.

“When we humanize policy, we create good policy,” Rep. Gonzalez said during the rally. “When we disconnect it from people’s lives, we negatively impact people’s lives. … I know sometimes they are extremely personal, but today is a day to be brave, to share, to not let people not recognize the negative consequences of these laws.”

Before I could do that, a problem developed with my team.  One member couldn't come to Austin, another local member had a meeting she had to attend, and another person who was part of a social justice org got immediately called back to her office.   My team had dwindled down to just me until Heather Ross joined me off the other trans centric team.

Heather and I were tasked with hitting the Pink Dome offices of Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) , Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston), Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston)  Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin), Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville) and Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) to talk about Rep Gilbert Pena's unjust HB 2801, the 'Trans Kids Bounty Bill' that is getting a hearing tomorrow.

All of these reps and senators have seniority, are longtime supporters of the TBLG community, but need varying levels of education on trans issues along with their staffs.  I was a constituent of Sen. Ellis and Rep Coleman until I moved in November.   So I had more than a few personal cards to play as Heather and I walked into these offices.

After clearing security on the east side of the capitol building, we started with Sen. Ellis' office, and Heather and I had a pleasant conversation with his LA Liliane Bedford as we pointed out the problems with HB 2801 and got out initial visit out of the way as we got a feel for each others lobbying styles

Sen. Garcia's office was a few short steps away down the hall, and as we talked in the hallway with Sam Robles, Sen Ellis stopped literally feet away from us talking to another citizen lobbyist..  

Arrgh.  Opportunity lost to talk to him directly.  

But what the lobbying fates take away, they giveth as well.   A few minutes later Sen. Garcia walked up, and I took that moment as Heather continued chatting with Sam to thank the senator for standing up for our human rights this session.

After finishing up with Ms. Robles, it was time to see Rep. Coleman.   But where Sen Ellis and Sen Garcia's offices are in the Capitol building is in what is called 'The Secret Hallway' because you have to cross the senate gallery to get to it from the rest of the capitol

Once we remembered that point from our training, we crossed the Senate gallery and headed to Rep. Coleman''s office

A few minutes into our ,pleasant visit sitting on the patio with a beautiful view of the north capitol grounds and parts of the nearby University of Texas campus, Rep. Coleman walked into the office. I thanked him for continuing to push for the streamlined name and gender change bill, and told him the story of how it took me nine months to get my TDL with the help of his Houston office.   He also made it clear that he didn't want what happened in Indiana repeated in Texas.

Heather and I then headed to Rep. Oliveira's office, and continued to point out to his LA's how this bill was problematic not only to trans schoolkids, but would also impact  ISD's, teachers and administrators before we headed to Rep Dawnna Dukes office.

Because Heather was from Austin, I thought it was better for her to lead on this one.  If any issues came up that were Austin-centric, she'd be better able to answer them than I would be, and we had another pleasant chat with Na'Asiaha Simon.   

Her boss is on the powerful Appropriations Committee and the fiscal argument resonated with her.  Rep. Dukes is also on the State Affairs Committee that the unjust HB 2801 will get a hearing in.

Our final visit happened in Rep Sylvester Turner's office, and Heather and I both had a wonderful time talking to Erica Smiley and Emma Oliver.    They relayed to us that Rep. Turner was concerned about the unjust bills.

Heather and I completed our mission at 3:30 PM, and ran into my ride back to Houston in Brandon Mack and Ashton Woods near the Capitol Rotunda.   After having lunch at a wonderful Cajun place on Rosewood St in East Austin, we headed to the legendary Scholtz Garten to connect with the rest of our fellow lobbyists to hear how their day went and let some of Austin's infamous rush hour traffic on I-35 die down before we headed back to Houston.

Got a feeling I may have to make one more trip to Austin before this session ends. 

The Kentucky Anti-Trans Bill Is FINALLY Dead!

It took a little longer than expected, but Sen. CB Embry anti-trans Bathroom Bounty Bill is finally dead with the end of the 2015 Kentucky General Assembly session at midnight EDT.

You'll recall that back in February the Kentucky senate Republicans shadily passed the bill out of committee, then passed the unjust bill it in the GOP controlled Senate on a 27-9 vote.

But SB 76 was DOA in the Democratically controlled House, and it was parked in a committee with no intention to let it out to the House floor much less bring it up for a committee vote.  

With the clock ticking toward the end of the session, Embry decided to tack his unjust bill to HB 236, a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House that would allow for a student representative to be appointed to school superintendent search committees. 

Dismayed Kentucky students from across the commonwealth not only saw the bill they had worked so hard to pass being hijacked by Embry, but also being altered Tuesday after two student rallies in Frankfort and news coverage about the impasse.

HB 236 was altered by the Kentucky senate to allow the student to sit on the search committee,  but the student would not be able to vote on who is recommended for the job.    The 'Student Religious Speech' amendment was also attached to HB 236  by Sen. Albert Robinson (R) to permit students to voluntarily express religious viewpoints in schools.  Senator Alice Forgy Kerr (R-Lexington) successfully attached another amendment that would make HB 236 immediately come into force after it became law with Governor Steve Beshear's (D) signature. 

Sen. Embry withdrew his 'Bathroom Bounty Bill' amendment and the altered  HB 236 passed 27-9. But the damage was done, and the amended HB 236..has no support in the Democratically controlled House when they voted overwhelmingly for the original bill.

While I'm sad that a great bill that would have empowered Kentucky students fell victim to GOP political shenanigans, the bigger picture is that the unjust anti-trans bill is FINALLY dead.