Legislation

This morning I wrote about the courts and this afternoon is legislation in Washington and locally.

Transgender people know the Equality Act won't end transphobia. But it will still protect us.
For me and my queer community, passing the bill could give us a freedom and security of movement that we have never experienced.
NBC News
By LaLa Zannell, Trans Justice Campaign Manager, ACLU
May 16, 2019

When the House of Representatives votes on the Equality Act on Friday, 50 years after Stonewall, our elected representatives will be engaging with one of the most urgent legal questions for queer people: how our lives should be protected under by federal law.

If you’ve never had to stop and think about whether a visit to a business or an attempt to access a public service will result in an uneventful transaction or end in humiliation or even death, you may not understand the need for protections like the Equality Act. But for me and my queer community, passing the Equality Act could give us a freedom and security that we have never experienced.

Opponents have said that LGBT people don’t need federal protections, since states can and have passed their own versions. But even in states where these laws exist — like New York — discrimination is still all too common. My own story is proof of that; at every stage of my adult life, I’ve been affected by the kinds of discrimination this bill would outlaw.

On the upper right side on my blog I have a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

That is so true, you are not going to cure discrimination with legislation; the bigotry will go from being overt to covert but it will still be there. What the laws do is it keeps the honest, honest, the fence sitters fence sitting, and the bigots silent.

Listening to the debate in the House the Republicans are bring up “Religious Freedom” to discrimination, however, there is broad support for this bill in religious communities.

Most US Evangelical Christians support the measures in the Equality Act
Gay Times
By Matt Moore
17th March 2019

A study found that 54% of Evangelicals back the measures in the bill, with only 38% opposing.
The Public Religion Research Institute has released figures which show that 54% of white Evangelicals in the United States back the measures in the Equality Act.

The Equality Act aims to give protections to people based on their sexual or gender identity in the fields of housing and employment. This means that it would be illegal to evict or fire someone because of their sexual or gender identity.

Evangelical Christians are considered to be the most conservative group in the United States when it comes to supporting LGBTQ rights, and yet the figures show that they support the Act by a 16-point margin.

Not only Evangelical Christians are for the bill but also,

The figures also showed that most major religious groups in the country also support the measures in the Equality Act. 53% of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 70% of Mormons, 68% of non-white Catholics, 65% of African American Protestants, 60% of Muslims and 59% of Orthodox Christians support the bill. But the religious group with the most backing for the bill were the New Age religions, with 81% in favour.

In another article…

Interfaith Groups Rally In Support Of Equality Act For LGBTQ Rights
Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus urged Congress to pass the bill, which would outlaw discrimination based on sexuality or gender identity.
Huffington Post
By Carol Kuruvilla


An interfaith coalition of religious leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in support of the Equality Act, a bill that seeks to shield LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, housing, public spaces and other key areas.

Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus were among those who rallied on the steps of the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill to pray and urge lawmakers to support the bill, which could land on the House floor for a vote this week.
[…]
Signatories included seminaries, faith-based civil rights and LGBTQ advocacy groups and entire denominations including the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

It appears that this morning vote was Yea 236 Nay 173 Not voting 23, Yea votes Democrats 228 Republican 8 Nay votes Democrats 0 Republicans 173

I doubt that this bill will never see the light-of-day in the Senate, no way will Sen. McConnell have a vote on this bill and no way would Trump sign this bill

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Down in Iowa the Republicans did what Republicans all around the country are doing … trying to pass oppressive laws.

Iowa lawmakers chose prejudice over science in exempting transgender surgery from Medicaid
Des Moines Register
By Rekha Basu
May 15, 2019

It's OK for Iowa lawmakers to admit to having little knowledge of an issue when it first comes before them for discussion. There are so many bills to contemplate, you can't expect everyone to be well-schooled on everything.

What isn't OK is staying ignorant while casting a vote for a proposed law that will profoundly affect people's lives. That's what a majority of the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate and House evidently did in the waning hours of the legislative session. They quietly slipped a measure into a Health and Human Services budget bill (House File 766) to deny Medicaid coverage for gender reassignment surgery to transgender Iowans. And they clearly did so without gathering scientific input from medical professionals or from transgender people themselves. The governor since signed the bill into law.

What turns this from lazy ignorance into prejudice is that they say they acted at the urging of one group of constituents — those who don't want their tax money spent that way — at the expense of another, whose well-being is at stake.

State Rep. Joel Fry (R-Osceola), who floor-managed the bill, said as much in an interview with Iowa Public Radio's Ben Kieffer on River to River Monday.

Kieffer: Were any transgender Iowans consulted?

Fry: That I do not know. Given the fact that we received this back from the Senate, I can't answer what the Senate did or did not do … We certainly had a period of time for folks to weigh in and to give their input.

I hear people say well Connecticut Republicans are not like that… WRONG!

Rep. Sampson R-Wolcott introduced a bill to strip our insurance coverage from us…

Referred to Committee on INSURANCE AND REAL ESTATE
Introduced by: REP. SAMPSON, 80th Dist.

HB 5193 AN ACT CONCERNING HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR GENDER REASSIGNMENT SURGERY.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
That title 38a of the general statutes be amended to specify that health insurance policies delivered, issued for delivery, renewed, amended or continued in this state shall not be required to provide coverage for gender reassignment surgery or related surgical expenses.
Statement of Purpose:
To specify that health insurance policies delivered, issued for delivery, renewed, amended or continued in this state shall not be required to provide coverage for gender reassignment surgery or related surgical expenses.

It is not just a southern Republican problem but a Republican problem, but the Republican here in Connecticut are bipolar. Just when you think that you figure out them out they vote for banning trans/gay panic bill.

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Speaking of Connecticut legislature…

SB 58 AN ACT CONCERNING GAY AND TRANSGENDER PANIC DEFENSE.
The bill is on the House calendar to be voted on. If you remember the bill passed in the Senate unanimously and if it passes in the House the governor has said he will sign the bill.

The other bills I am following…

HB 5505 AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION. --- No movement

HB 7359 AN ACT CONCERNING A LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NETWORK. --- Some movement it has been “Tabled for the Calendar, House”* which is a good thing.

SB 388 AN ACT CONCERNING INTERSEX PERSONS. --- Substitute bill introduced.

*TABLED FOR THE CALENDAR
The formal order for a bill reported out of committee to be printed in the files and appear on the House or Senate calendar. This step also serves as the bill's second reading.

SB 388 AN ACT CONCERNING INTERSEX PERSONS
The substitute language added intersex to the non-discrimination to the state statutes

The substitute language also took out the section stopping surgery for intersex babies and established a committee to study medical option. The committee shall be made up of,

270 Sec. 5. (Effective from passage) (a) There is established a task force to
271 study the circumstances in which a surgery related to a person's
272 intersex status is medically necessary.
273 (b) The task force shall consist of the following members:

274 (1) Two appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives,
275 one of whom shall be a licensed mental health care provider with
276 experience in treating intersex persons, and one of whom shall be an
277 intersex adult;

278 (2) Two appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate, one
279 of whom shall be a medical ethicist with a publishing background in
280 issues affecting the intersex community, and one of whom shall be a
281 representative of a community group that is led by and comprised of
282 intersex persons and that has experience advocating for policies
283 benefiting the intersex community;

284 (3) One appointed by the majority leader of the House of
285 Representatives, who shall be a pediatrician with experience in
286 treating intersex persons;

287 (4) One appointed by the majority leader of the Senate, who shall be
288 a legal expert with a publishing background in issues affecting the
289 intersex community;

290 (5) One appointed by the minority leader of the House of
291 Representatives, who shall be a urologist with experience in treating
292 intersex persons;

293 (6) One appointed by the minority leader of the Senate, who shall be
294 an endocrinologist with experience in treating intersex persons; and

295 (7) One appointed by the Governor, who shall be an intersex adult.

296 (c) Any member of the task force appointed under subdivision (1),
297 (2), (3), (4), (5) or (6) of subsection (b) of this section may be a member
298 of the General Assembly.