Massachusetts has officially become the 16th state in the USA, to treat transgender citizens as a protected class today as the Governor, Deval Patrick hosted a ceremonial signing of the groundbreaking rights bill.
"I sign this bill as a matter of conscience; people should be able to come before their government as equals," Patrick said as he signed "An Act Relative to Gender Identity" into law.
The law legally protects transgender individuals from discrimination in housing, education, employment and credit, in addition to providing additional civil rights and protections from hate crimes.
Though Patrick had actually signed the bill in his office in late November, Thursday's event was a ceremonial start-of-the-year one that drew an overflowing crowd from the local transgender community. However positive the ceremony - some Transgender rights activists have found fault with the bill saying that does not go far enough with regards to Public Accommodation Protections. The previous removal of such a protection, which would have required all "sex-segregated facilities" such as rest rooms or locker rooms to grant admission to people based on gender identity was heavily criticized by many who considered it a key component.
“Just because it’s such a basic right for people and the fact that it’s not protected is kind of atrocious,” said Kaylin MacNeil of Holyoke.
"This law is about affirming rights," Gunner Scott, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), told media outlet, Bay Windows. "This law is for people who think they can deny us those rights... This piece of paper is not magic, but for many of us it is the result of hard work that will change our lives." It is estimated that over 33,000 Transgendered people live in Massachusetts.
