More than half the legislature signs on to trans rights bill
Bay Windows, by Ethan Jacobs
Thursday Feb 12, 2009
After an aggressive lobbying campaign advocates managed to convince 21 senators and 83 House members, a majority in both chambers, to sign on as original co-sponsors of the transgender rights bill. The deadline for adding original co-sponsors was 5 p.m. on Feb. 11. This year marks a major increase in support for the bill from the last session - the first time the bill was filed - when it garnered just 25 sponsors. The bill would add gender identity and expression protections to the state's non-discrimination and hate crimes laws. The lead sponsors in the House are state Reps. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) and Byron Rushing (D-Boston); it was filed in the Senate by Sen. Ben Downing (D-Pittsfield).
Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), the lead organization in the coalition to pass the bill, said the amount of co-sponsorships the bill received makes him hopeful about the bill's prospects this session.
"I think this is super-amazing and it feels extremely empowering from the perspective of being a trans person to see this number of legislators standing up and cosponsoring this bill. We as an organization have put a lot of time and effort and resources into this, and it's great to see the fruits of those labors, as well as that of all the coalition partners," said Scott.
Sciortino praised the coalition, particularly MTPC and MassEquality, for their work in securing co-sponsors. He said he believes getting co-sponsorships from a majority of the legislature puts the bill in a strong position going forward.
"I've never seen another bill on any issue that has this level of co-sponsorship this session, so this is really a fantastic position to be in to have this level of support for the bill right out of the gate," said Sciortino.
Marc Solomon, executive director of MassEquality, said his organization used the relationships it had built with lawmakers during the marriage battle to win co-sponsorships, and it also relied on its grassroots supporters to lobby lawmakers to co-sponsor the bill. Solomon said MassEquality let lawmakers know that their decision about whether or not to co-sponsor would be taken into account by MassEquality in future endorsements.
"We sent out a letter the other day that we sent out to supporters of marriage equality that makes clear that we will have a scorecard and that original co-sponsorship of the bill will be part of the scorecard going forward," said Solomon.