{"id":957,"date":"2018-09-05T13:34:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T13:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/diversityinclusionma\/?p=957"},"modified":"2018-09-05T13:34:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T13:34:42","slug":"transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/2018\/09\/05\/transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender Rights Up For Vote in Massachusetts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Taking the T to work, grabbing a coffee, going out to eat, lying on the beach and seeking help at the hospital \u2013 these are only a few examples of how public accommodations play a role in our daily lives. Before July of 2016, transgender people in Massachusetts could be, and in many cases were, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/files\/documents\/2016\/10\/om\/transgender-pa-testimony-10-06-15.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawfully denied access to places of public accommodation<\/a>. On July 8, 2016, Governor Baker signed <em><a href=\"https:\/\/malegislature.gov\/Bills\/189\/Senate\/S2407\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">An Act Relative to Transgender Anti-Discrimination<\/a><\/em> into law, stating \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/news\/governor-baker-signs-transgender-anti-discrimination-legislation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">no one should be discriminated against in Massachusetts because of their gender identity<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Opponents of these transgender protections now seek to overturn the law, alleging that \u201ccountless deviant men in this world . . . will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they want to exploit, namely women and children.\u201d This <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Massachusetts_Question_3,_Gender_Identity_Anti-Discrimination_Veto_Referendum_(2018)#Support_for_.22no.22_vote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cbathroom bill\u201d argument<\/a> persists despite research showing that allowing transgender people to use facilities that conform to their gender identity <a href=\"https:\/\/fenwayhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/COM-2485-Transgender-Bathroom-Bill-Brief_v8-pages.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">does not increase the risk of voyeurism and sexual harassment<\/a>. In fact, research shows that transgender individuals are the ones who face <a href=\"http:\/\/williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">high rates of harassment and assault<\/a> when forced to use facilities that do not conform to their gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>A WBUR poll in late May showed that a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbur.org\/news\/2018\/07\/09\/ballot-questions-massachusetts-transgender-citizens-united\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">slim majority of Massachusetts residents support keeping the law in place<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Massachusetts will vote on whether to keep these protections in place. A &#8220;YES&#8221;\u00a0vote on Question 3 will keep these protections in place. A &#8220;NO&#8221;\u00a0vote on Question 3 will remove these protections for transgender individuals.<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking the T to work, grabbing a coffee, going out to eat, lying on the beach and seeking help at the hospital &ndash; these are only a few examples of how public accommodations play a role in our daily lives. Before July of 2016, transgender people in Massachusetts could be,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":10661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,2274],"tags":[501,2301,2302,1425,59,2303,80,2022,2304],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","category-case-for-inclusion","tag-anti-discrimination","tag-assault","tag-bathroom-bill","tag-gender-identity","tag-massachusetts","tag-protections","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-transgender","tag-vote"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Transgender Rights Up For Vote in Massachusetts - Bowditch &amp; Dewey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/2018\/09\/05\/transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transgender Rights Up For Vote in Massachusetts - Bowditch &amp; Dewey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Taking the T to work, grabbing a coffee, going out to eat, lying on the beach and seeking help at the hospital &ndash; these are only a few examples of how public accommodations play a role in our daily lives. Before July of 2016, transgender people in Massachusetts could be,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/2018\/09\/05\/transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bowditch &amp; Dewey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-05T13:34:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Voting-bw.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1019\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chelsie A. Vokes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chelsie A. 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Before July of 2016, transgender people in Massachusetts could be,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/2018\/09\/05\/transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts\/","og_site_name":"Bowditch &amp; Dewey","article_published_time":"2018-09-05T13:34:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1853,"height":1019,"url":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Voting-bw.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chelsie A. Vokes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chelsie A. Vokes","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/2018\/09\/05\/transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/2018\/09\/05\/transgender-rights-up-for-vote-in-massachusetts\/"},"author":{"name":"Chelsie A. 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