BayWindows.com – by Ethan Jacobs – Associate Editor
Trans rights bill top priority
In the midst of an economic crisis that will no doubt occupy much of the legislature’s time, LGBT advocates have their sights set on two goals as the start of the new legislative session: to pass a transgender rights bill and to try to protect state funding for LGBT and HIV-related programs.
MassEquality, the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), and their coalition partners have made passage of the trans rights bill – which would add protections based on gender identity and expression to the state’s non-discrimination and hate crimes laws – their top priority this session, and the groups will spend the next two months working to recruit cosponsors of the bill to give it momentum before an expected Judiciary Committee hearing…