All Those Who Think This Will Pass Raise Your Hand

When the Massachusetts gender identity and expression bill was passed in 2012 one key component was left out… public accommodation. The Boston Globe had an editorial the efforts to pass public accommodation bill, in the editorial they said,

In so doing, the Massachusetts Transgender Equal Rights Act protected transgender people from being discriminated against in matters of housing, employment, credit, and public education. But at the last minute, legislators stripped a provision out of the bill regarding discrimination in public places. So a restaurant, for instance, could not refuse to hire someone — or fire them — based on gender identity, but it could refuse to serve them. And a transgender person could be denied use of a public restroom.
  The absence of the “public accommodation” clause leaves a crucial hole in the law, one that state legislators in the last session tried to rectify. But an amendment proposed by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz languished in the Senate. Now Chang-Diaz is set to resubmit the bill. The Legislature should move quickly to pass the amendment, and Governor Charlie Baker — who has expressed ambivalence about the provision — should support it.

When trying to pass protection for us the easy parts were employment, housing, and credit, public accommodation is always the hardest to pass because of the dreaded label “Bathroom Bill.”

I know here in Connecticut we said all or nothing. We had rulings from the Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities and so did Massachusetts that gender identity and expression were protected under sex discrimination. One of the arguments that was used was the legislation never said that it wasn’t protected. Well now in Massachusetts they did, so it is a whole new ballgame.

Now they are struggling to pass the public accommodation and it is going to be a long, long uphill battle. And as the editorial said the governor doesn’t if he will support the bill.

In another Boston Globe article it said that,

BOSTON - Governor-elect Charlie Baker would not support expanding the state's anti-discrimination laws to add protection for transgender people in public places, such as restaurants or theaters.
  Baker, a Republican, does support an existing law that protects transgender people from discrimination in employment and housing. But he said Monday that he does not favor a bill that is expected to come before the legislature next session to add a prohibition against discrimination in places of "public accommodation."
  "No one's been able to explain to me how the public accommodation piece would actually work in practice," Baker said. "Schools, hospitals, other organizations have all expressed what I believe to be legitimate concerns about that law."

I don’t that the Massachusetts legislature will ever be able to get enough support to override a governor’s veto.

There has not been any legal cases for public accommodation so far, it should be very interesting to see what will happen when there is a case. Will the courts follow previous precedent? Or will they throw it all out and find we are not covered under sex discrimination because the legislature has had it say?

So I wish them luck, because they are going to need it.