Heavy hitters go to bat for transgender civil rights bill

Gov. Deval Patrick, Attorney General Martha Coakley and Congressman Barney Frank came out in support of House Bill 1722 at a March 4 hearing on the bill before the legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary. The bill would add gender identity and expression to the state's civil rights laws.

"I am pleased to submit this letter in favor of laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression," wrote Gov. Deval Patrick in a brief letter that was submitted to the committee. "Less than a year ago we celebrated the historic victory for marriage equality, ensuring that gays and lesbians enjoy the freedom to marry the person of their choice, and preserving Massachusetts' place as a leader in the fight for civil rights and equality. The proposed legislation represents another step forward in achieving fair and equal treatment for all."

MassEquality Campaign Director Marc Solomon praised Patrick for supporting HB 1722, which came just hours before the 1:00 p.m. start of the judiciary committee hearing. "Deval is the real deal and he knows the meaning of equality and social justice and has been fighting for it his whole life," said Solomon. "It's terrific. It's a strong statement that the governor of the Commonwealth stands with all parts of the LGBT community."

"As Attorney General, I am committed to protecting the civil rights of all people in the Commonwealth, and to enforcing our antidiscrimination and hate crimes laws to their fullest extent," Coakley wrote in her testimony. "... HB 1722 reflects the fact that the Commonwealth is stronger when every person may live, work, attend school, and access places of public accommodation without being discriminated against, harassed, threatened or assaulted."

Bay Windows broke the news of Coakley's support for the bill yesterday.

In his testimony and in a brief interview with Bay Windowson Feb. 29, Frank said that he wanted to deliver his testimony in person, but as chair of the Committee on Financial Services, which has primary responsibility in Congress for dealing with the subprime mortgage crisis, his schedule would not permit it. At Frank's request, his statement was read this afternoon by Diego Sanchez, the former co-chair of the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition.

Alluding to the controversy over Congress's failure to pass a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) bill last fall, Frank asked that the committee not take that failure as a reason for Massachusetts not to pass a fully inclusive bill. "We worked very hard to achieve that," he wrote of Congress's effort, "but we were unable to succeed politically. Fortunately, the political composition of the Massachusetts Legislature differs in a number of ways - almost all of them positive - from the U.S. House of Representatives, and I did want to make it clear that it was a lack of votes and not a lack of commitment that led us to act as we did last fall."

The openly gay Newton Democrat also noted that his testimony on H.B. 1722 comes almost exactly 35 years after he first delivered testimony at the State House in support of a gay civil rights bill as a freshman state representative and chief sponsor of the bill. Frank worked the bill for the eight years he was on Beacon Hill; it finally passed in 1989. "That example seems to me particularly relevant because I remember hearing from 1973 on concerns that adoption of such antidiscrimination legislation would be socially disruptive; morally disorienting to young people; economically burdensome for employers; and in other ways deleterious to the quality of life in the Commonwealth," he stated in his testimony. "None of those predictions has come even remotely close to being true."

He also took a shot at congressional Republicans who in the 2006 elections attempted to use the specter that Frank would implement "radical homosexual agenda" should the Democrats take power, noting that his agenda to ensure that LGBT people have the right to marry, serve in the military and hold down a job is hardly an "inspiring revolutionary platform."

"I submit this statement to you not as part of any radical agenda," he stated, "but as a plea for us to recognize what I believe is our obligation to treat each other with the respect and dignity and fairness that everyone should be entitled to receive. I will continue to fight in Washington for transgender inclusion in any antidiscrimination legislation. I hope that when I return to that effort, I will be able to point to the state that I am honored to be able to represent in the U.S. Congress as one that has recognized the importance of that principle."

Read Governor Deval Patrick's letter to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

Read Coakley's testimony in its entirety.

Read Congressman Barney Frank's testimony.

Look for more coverage of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary's hearing on H.B. 1722 in Thursday's edition ofBay Windows