Monday, April 04, 2011

HB6599 – An Act Concerning Discrimination

Last week the vote was delayed because of the prospect of a lengthy debate, instead of passing with little debate the Republicans said that they were going to offer a number of amendments. Some of them quite hideous…
Gender ID Bill Waits in Committee, Kissel Plans Amendments
CT News Junkie
by Hugh McQuaid
Mar 30, 201

The amendments came from concerns raised during a public hearing on March 21, he said. Kissel’s first amendment would ratchet up penalties for individuals who posed as transgender for criminal reasons.

While noting the scenario was probably an unlikely one, Kissel said that under his amendment someone convicted of a Class A misdemeanor who was determined to have posed as transgender solely for criminal reasons would instead be convicted of a Class D felony.
Sen. Kissel admitted that it would probably not happen; however, he is still going to tie up the committee with this amendment. So let me get this straight, if a man commits a sexual assault with a mask on he gets one sentence, but if he dresses as a woman he gets a stiffer sentence. I don’t know about you, but this does not make any sense to me and it seems that it is very bigoted and discriminatory.

The article goes on to say that,
Kissel’s other amendment also addressed a concern raised by Wolfgang at the hearing, mainly the effect having a transgender teacher could have on young school children. Under the amendment municipal boards of education would be given the option to temporarily reassign transgender teachers as they undergo transition.
How many school systems do you think would not transfer a teacher out of the class. If they didn’t they would be worrying that there would be complaints to they would err on the conservative side. What with that teach the student? That it is OK to discriminate against someone who is different. Is that the right message to send the children?

The bill is going up for a vote tomorrow, this time the committee budgeted more time for the bill. I will be there and I let you know how it turned out, hopefully no amendments will be added.

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