Northampton City Council gives full support to transgender rights bill
NORTHAMPTON — Urging the state to follow the city’s lead, the Northampton City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting a bill in the Legislature that would provide equal rights for transgender people.
Northampton enacted a local nondiscrimination ordinance to that effect in 2005, and the resolution backed by councilors Thursday urges state lawmakers to do the same.
The proposed state legislation known as "An Act Relative to Transgender Equal Rights" adds the categories of "gender identity and expression" to the state's hate crimes and nondiscrimination laws in employment, housing, education, public accommodations, and credit. It also ensures that state laws explicitly protect all people from discrimination and violence because of their gender identity and expression.
"I often find that people think we have a transgender rights bill in Massachusetts when that is not the case," Genny Beemyn, a transgender person and director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, told the council. "We only have Northampton and Amherst that provide protections in western Massachusetts."
The Stonewall Center is a bisexual, gay, lesbian, queer, and transgender educational resource center. Beemyn said passage of the bill is "long overdue."
The resolution approved by the council states that Massachusetts transgender youth, adults, and their families continue to face "pervasive discrimination and violence because of widespread prejudice" and it provides data from a recent national transgender discrimination survey to back up that claim.
In one striking finding, the survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force learned from respondents that they experienced poverty at more than three times the rate of the general population - and that 15 percent of respondents had a household income of $10,000 or less compared to 4 percent of the general population.
The resolution was brought forward by the city's Human Rights Commission, and several members of the public, including the commission's chairwoman, the Rev. Carol Rinehart, urged the council to push state lawmakers to pass the bill.
"For years we have had the benefit of transgender people who are citizen leaders in our community," Rinehart said.
Michael R. Bardsley, a former city councilor and candidate for mayor who spearheaded the city's nondiscrimination ordinance, said the proposed legislation is significant.
"For many people, this issue may be a marginal issue," Bardsley said. "I am here to say emphatically that it's not."
Ward 6 City Councilor Marianne L. LaBarge described providing transgender people with equal rights protections as an "urgent" matter that needs to be moved on quickly by state lawmakers.
"How can you say you're not going to support this?" LaBarge said. "I have friends who are transgenders. They are the greatest people."
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.
Comments
Waste of time
Stop wasting time on non city issues
Lack of information...
To discriminate against a group, one would first need to be aware of that group's differences and what they are. The primary dilemma with transgenderism in our culture is that most people don't know much about it, and that lack of knowledge can come across as discrimination. The best thing the transgender community could do for itself would be to educate the public. I don't want to make anyone feel bad and I want to be respectful toward everyone, but I don't really know much about transgenderism, so just by opening my mouth I might say something offensive- apply a "he" where there should have been a "she", for instance. I know several transgendered people, none of them well enough to sit down and ask, and who and what they are and want to be considered can be confusing and touchy. Go look it up "transgender" on Wikipedia- it's very complicated and hard to understand. And every other week, the lingo out-dates itself: "Transvestite" is no longer acceptable, so don't say it. It's called something else now. But what it's called now will be politically incorrect next year when they come up with a new acceptable term, so you'd better be careful and stay up to date! It's very hard to keep up with all of it. Make one mistake, and you're being "discriminatory".
In a nutshell, you have a group that is claiming to be discriminated against by a mainstream that the group has done a very poor job of educating about who they are.
So there you go, transgendered folks. Get organized to let us know who you are and how you want and don't want to be treated/ referred to as and we'll do our best. As of now, I haven't the slightest clue.