John Trobaugh

In Massachusetts, the month of November has particular significance this year. There is a group (funded by out-of-state conservative organizations) that managed to get on the ballot a repeal of a law designed to protect the transgender community.

This group pitched the repeal as one that would protect your mother and daughter from being accosted in public restrooms by men.

The reality is that no one in Massachusetts has been accosted because of the trans public accommodation protection law, and in September, a study was published in The Boston Globe that proved it. According to The Boston Globe, “Researchers at the Williams Institute, a think tank focused on gender identity at the UCLA School of Law, examined restroom crime reports in Massachusetts cities of similar size and comparable demographics and found no increase in crime and no difference between cities that had adopted transgender policies and those that had not.”

So what does the current law do? It makes it illegal to discriminate based on a perception of transgender status in any public accommodation (i.e., a hospital, a grocery store, a public park or anywhere the public would have a right to access). It also makes it easier for a trans person who has been discriminated against to seek a legal remedy.

The repeal ballot question is also worded very differently than the other two ballot questions. The other two ballot questions are worded so that if you want to make a change to the current law, then you vote yes to adopt a new provision. On Ballot Question 3, however, if you vote yes, the discrimination protection law that went into effect in 2016 will remain intact. If you vote no, then you will be repeal the law that protects our trans community. That is why I am voting Yes on 3!

The reason the legislature passed this law is precisely because trans people are the ones that are abused in public places – yes, even in Massachusetts. Health disparities and employment discrimination also make our trans community among the poorest and most vulnerable, even as compared to the LGB population. It is even noted on the government website that was set up to highlight the most vulnerable populations, healthypeople.gov/2020.

The problem is even graver than just poor health. Each year, our community gathers to remember all the known trans individuals that have been murdered. (I note known, because their families, local officials or sometimes the local press will misidentify them.) For the last five-plus years, this ceremony has been held at the Worcester Public Library. The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, is observed annually on Nov. 20 as a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia and to draw attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community. I have participated in this ceremony, on my birthday, for the last seven years. We read the hundred-plus names and offer a prayer in a variety of religious traditions.

This year, I vote Yes on 3 in honor and memory of those who have suffered and been murdered simply because they are trans.