With the signing of this bill into law, transgender people will now have the same rights
as everyone else, no matter where they go in Massachusetts.
You should clap about that.
You guys worked really hard.
When the trans law in Massachusetts passed in 2016, it was a day of celebration for our
family.
And I know, I just know, that one day Jacob will understand the weight
of this moment and what we have achieved together.
It was one of the most triumphant and happiest moments, and it gave me the feeling like,
we’re going to be okay.
He’s gonna be safe here.
And having that sense of safety put into question has been very difficult for our family.
Is this your first phone bank?
No, this is my third one, so—third or fourth…
Hi!
This is Kim from the Yes on 3 campaign to defend transgender equality.
Is this Elizabeth?
Okay, I sure will.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
What happened?
It’s a bad time—call back.
Right now, Massachusetts has a law in place that protects transgender people in public
places,
but, unfortunately in November, we’re going to be voting on whether to keep or repeal
that law.
So if the election were held today, would you vote yes to keep these protections?
Or vote no to repeal them?
So, what everyone is doing here tonight is calling voters across the state of Massachusetts.
We know that transgender people deserve dignity in their everyday lives,
and we want to make sure that’s what they get come November.
This is historic.
This is the first time that there has been a statewide vote on transgender rights anywhere
in this country.
My name is Kasey Suffredini.
I am co-chair of the Freedom for All Massachusetts campaign,
which is the campaign to uphold non-discrimination protections for transgender people in Massachusetts.
My name is Sonia Chang-Díaz.
I am the state senator for the second Suffolk district, which is fun to say ten times fast.
The original bill had what I’ll call ‘the whole enchilada,’ right?
It was equal protections under the law for transgender Bay Staters
in all facets of life and law that you could imagine.
Unfortunately though, to secure passage for that bill,
there was a compromise made to omit public accommodations from the final bill.
‘Public accommodations’ are basically everywhere that you are when you’re not
at home or at work.
The shopping mall, the park, the museum, the hospital, the grocery store,
restaurants, libraries, the movies, a coffee shop, on the train, or a taxi, an airport,
or a hotel—
those are all public accommodations.
And so what that legislation said is that you’re allowed to be trans at work,
you’re allowed to be trans at home or trans at school,
but anytime you’re going between those places,
we’re not covered under the 2011 legislation.
So then the next legislative session began we filed the bill again to come back
for the rest, for the public accommodations piece.
The chair recognizes the senator from Suffolk, Ms. Chang-Diaz.
It is a profound honor for me this afternoon to be here to present this bill.
I remember so vividly when we finally did pass the public accommodations bill on the
Senate floor,
and that was the first time I had ever seen the entire Senate chamber silent,
at a hush, in anticipation of passage of this bill.
People understood that we were doing something righteous and historic.
Particularly at a time when the rest of the country was sort of going low
in terms of transgender rights, Massachusetts was going high.
And after a while, all of those other people, those people who don’t celebrate us being
today,
they too, they too will understand that everyone in this state has rights.
But anyways, you get across the finish line and you think you're there,
and then you know, then you find out there's a mountain beyond the mountain that you have
to climb.
When the bill was signed into law, we didn’t give up.
We jumped into action and led the charge to form the Keep Massachusetts Safe ballot question
committee to repeal this law.
We have successfully put the law on the 2018 ballot, and this is a major victory,
and a challenge to the narrative of the inevitability of the LGBT agenda.
I think this is a last place that I expected something like this referendum to happen.
My name is Mimi Lemay, and I have a transgender son.
In 2010, I had a child that the doctor told me was a baby girl.
When my middle child turned about 2 years old, that's when things started to change,
and they were telling me and my husband and anyone who would listen that we'd made a mistake—
our child was a boy.
It took us a very long time to realize that our kid could be transgender.
We realized that for our child's happiness and well-being and to help them thrive,
we needed to allow a transition.
And at the age of four we welcomed our son Jacob into our family.
When we freed him to be himself, he came to life in an incredible way.
It was like we were witnessing a miracle unfolding.
We may be living in a happy little bubble at the moment,
but there was a world out there that wouldn't necessarily accept my son.
There are times that I’ve just gone into a quiet room and cried because I am scared
for him.
It is not fair for him.
And then I see Jacob and the kind of person that he is.
And I think to myself, ‘He's going to be okay.
He's going to be okay.’
But it's a prayer, because I don't know and it isn't fair.
When the trans law in Massachusetts passed in 2016, it was a day of celebration for our
family for that very reason.
We felt that Jacob was safer in our community.
And the thought of a small group of people coming and claiming that somehow
giving transgender people equal rights detracts from
the well-being of the rest of the Commonwealth, it's not only ludicrous but it's disheartening,
and it's dangerous for people like my son.
This is what is really at stake—the redefinition of what it means to be created in God’s
image, male and female,
and the normalization of a deep, psychological confusion in the minds of our children.
It plants a seed in people’s minds that there’s something wrong with being transgender,
when in fact it is just one of the many variations that we have in our lives,
in our society, and our biology.
When we protect transgender people we're not giving them something that we don't give anyone
else.
We're saying, you know, you are just as worthy as everyone else of experiencing the same
joys of living in a state like Massachusetts.
You are a member of our society and a valued member of our society.
And that's that's what I want for Jacob, that’s what I want for everyone in the trans and
nonbinary community.
Hi, everyone.
A couple of housekeeping notes before we get started.
So bathrooms are right through this door, or right through this hallway.
They’re gendered; use whichever one aligns with your identity.
We are in Worcester, here for a Yes on 3 townhall to educate folks on what’s
happening here in Massachusett and let folks know how they can get involved.
Our opposition relies on misperceptions of what it means to be transgender
and lies about safety and privacy to scare people into voting against transgender folks.
They narrow this down to a one sentence: No men in women's bathrooms.
We are here today to talk about the threat to privacy and safety
in the so-called gender identity non-discrimination bills.
If a man wishes to express himself as female and enter a woman’s locker room,
bathroom, or fitness center, or homeless shelter, those real women and children
would have no power to object to that man’s presence.
I feel that the people that want to overturn this law don’t understand that
I’m just trying to live my life, and many of them try to frame me almost as if
I’m a bad person that is ‘out to hurt people,’
when I’m just trying to live my life.
When Nicole was growing up, I saw signs that something was really different but I didn't
know what it was.
It wasn't until many many years later that you know over time that I realized
that Nicole is transgender.
People always talk about having got that moment where it was like,
‘I'm a girl or I'm a boy.’
And it was never that way for me.
It was just I am who I am and I'm a girl.
Initially I think that the anxiety was: How do I support my child?
But when we made the decision from Nicole to socially transition,
the the anxieties became external.
You know anxiety about how will the rest of the world react and respond.
Nicole and I were in the Statehouse when the law passed and it was incredibly exciting.
It was such a sense of relief that we were we were acknowledged by the government
as human beings that have always had rights, but deserved to have them protected.
Throughout my journey and my transition, music and performing and singing have been my rock.
I held on to my singing and my rock almost as a lifeline.
It was everything that I lived for.
I may not be able to see a musical or perform on a stage
just because somebody doesn’t like the fact that I’m trans.
That’s hard for me considering music is my life.
I think there’s a lot of misinformation about what the law is.
Can you imagine every day going through your life wondering if someone's going to tell
you
you don't belong and that you can't be there?
That's what this law is protecting for transgender people, that they can have access and protection
in those places every day just like the rest of us do.
I don't think it's should be surprising to anybody that anti-transgender activists
confuse voters into into voting their way and the message is that they use are legitimately
scary.
And our job is to make sure that people know that it's just not true.
It's still illegal to behave in a criminal way in a public space.
And that law has not changed.
But what it has done the trans law has done is give people like Jacob and others in his
community
a feeling of safety that they know that the state will protect them in the case that
they are discriminated against and harassed in public.
We all care about safety and privacy, including transgender people.
And the good news is that we've had this law in place for the last two years
and we haven't seen an increase in safety incidents.
That's why statewide organizations like the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association,
and other statewide police associations and local police chapters all across the state
are enthusiastic public proactive endorsers of these protections.
They know as we do that everybody is safer when everybody is treated with dignity and respect.
The anti-transgender activists that have put this on the ballot have said publicly in the
media
that if they succeed in Massachusetts, they will try to roll back protections like these
all across the country.
So the stakes could not be higher.
This is a must win fight.
It is a huge undertaking though, to get out there and do those phone banks and to do those
canvasses,
and make sure that there's really clear information in the hands of voters.
But we are no strangers to hard work in this movement.
We would like people to vote yes on 3 for a very basic and simple reason:
to uphold dignity and respect.
For all people in Massachusetts, including transgender people.
It's as simple as that.
We're not all the same and that's okay and I would hope that for the trans community
that people become more and more accepting
and that people get more and more knowledge,
so that trans people don't have to be afraid of who they are.
All they have to do is be.