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.
