Yesterday!

Was a very long day, I went to two other people to register at a little before 9 AM and then we went home until 2 PM and then we went back to the Legislative Office Building for the hearing. Government officials we still testifying and I knew it was going to be a very long time before we go heard and I was right, it wasn’t until a little before seven that the first person was called to testify on the bill HB-5505 AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION.

So I read a book… walked around the LOB… listened to some testimony… talked to a lobbyist friend… read my book…

Finally the list of those wanting to give testimony whittled down to us.

Another trans person who had his legislator introduced the bill testified.

While we were killing time I was talking to a lobbyist friend and she was giving me the lowdown on the bill and the legislators… there was two to watch out for, both Republicans, Sen. Sampson and Rep. Mastrofrancesco. Senator Sampson back in 2015 introduced a bill to strip us of insurance coverage and he voted against some LGBT bills

So when the senator asked the question about removing gender all together…

How about no gender whatsoever. In my view government should treat people as individual’s period. And I don’t think gender is anyone’s business in the way they treat people no matter what.

Wow! That was a surprise that caught all of us off guard.

There were a total of six people who testified for the bill and none against it.

CT TransAdvocacy Coalition testimony that I read a shorten version of this,

The Honorable Senator Haskell, Co-Chair March 3, 2019
The Honorable Representative Winkler, Co-Chair
Government Administration and Elections Committee
Legislative Office Building, Room 2200
Hartford, CT 06106

Dear Co-Chairs and Committee Members,

The Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition would like to urge you to vote in favor of HB-5505 AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION. The passage of the bill will have a positive effect on the intersex, transgender, and gender nonbinary communities.

When a person enters a state building you have to show a state issued ID or when you apply for a job you have to show proof of citizenship. Can you imagine what you would feel if your ID doesn’t match your gender? For nonbinary people they face that every day, having ID that doesn’t match their gender presentation creates barriers in employment, housing, education. In a host of common daily interactions it can also create a hostile environment and can also lead to verbal or even physical harassment.

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) 2015 Transgender Survey of over 28,000 transgender individuals found that,

“More than one-third (35%) of respondents indicated that their gender identity was best described as nonbinary  or genderqueer, a term often used to describe people whose gender is not exclusively male or female, including those who identify with a gender other than male or female, as more than one gender, or as no gender.”

In passing this law Connecticut would not be a trail blazer, currently, eleven states (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) and two cities (New York City and Washington, D.C.) are able to list a gender neutral option on their IDs and forms. In addition United States District Court for the District of Colorado Judge R. Brooke Jackson has ordered the State Department to issue a gender-neutral passport.

For more information on gender nonbinary/gender nonconforming people the National Center for Transgender Equality has a webpage “Understanding Non-Binary People: How to Be Respectful and Supportive.”

As more children and adolescents come out as gender non-conforming or gender neutral it is becoming vital to have a gender neutral option on state IDs and forms. Every Connecticut citizen deserves to be treated with dignity; therefore the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition respectfully asks that the GAE committee vote in favor of HB-5505, thank you.

I was asked a question about CTAC but other than that question no other committee members asked a question.