MountainPrideMedia
Montpelier – In a surprise move, after years of work by advocates and final overwhelming approval by both House and Senate, Gov. Jim Douglas vetoed the gender identity and expression bill on May 17th.
?I didn?t expect it,? said Jes Kraus, a Montpelier attorney who helped draft language for the bill and worked with the legislature for the past two years.
?The governor?s office never reached out to us,? Kraus said, to clarify any issues they may have had with the bill.
The bill, now known as An Act Relating to Nondiscrimination (H.865), would include the category of ?gender identity and expression? in existing legislation that already protects the categories of race, color, creed, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, and national origin. The proposed law would ban discrimination or harassment based on gender identity or expression in employment, banks, housing, public accommodations and schools.
?Banning discrimination based on gender identity was supported by the vast majority of Vermont legislators, numerous civil rights and human services groups, and many of the businesses in our state,? said R.U.1.2? Queer Community Center Executive Director Christopher Kaufman when he learned of the veto. ?We?re going to work as hard as we can the next couple of weeks. We?re not going to let the issue lie.?