GLAD Voices Disappointment, Hope After MA Transgender Rights Bill Fails to Come to Vote

November 19, 2015 - The Massachusetts Legislature will not hold a vote before its recess on An Act Relative to Transgender Anti-Discrimination (SB 735 and HB 1577), which would fully protect transgender citizens of the Commonwealth from discrimination. The legislature will reconvene in January, when it will have an opportunity again to take up the bill.

"We are enormously disappointed that the Legislature is passing on this opportunity to protect all of our citizens from discrimination," said Janson Wu, Executive Director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). "For transgender people to live another day experiencing and fearing discrimination in a state that prides itself on its civil rights leadership is distressing.

"GLAD has been proud to be part of the Freedom Massachusetts Coalition that brought the bill this far.  We have gained a lot of ground, we have educated a lot of people, and we have built tremendous support, particularly from the business community and from law enforcement.  I'm confident that we will attain these protections – it's a question not of if but when."

Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.