Four of Boston’s major league teams and the TD Garden rallied around state legislation this week that would include non-discrimination protections for transgender people in public places like sports stadiums, restaurants, shopping malls, and other public accommodations.
The New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, New England Revolution, and the Garden, home to the Celtics and Bruins, officially endorsed the public accommodations bills (SB 735 and H 1577), according to a January 12 press release from Freedom Massachusetts, a politically bipartisan equal rights advocacy group that brings together business leaders and policy makers.
The region’s top pro teams — including the Boston Red Sox, which had already pledged support — join many businesses, including Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Google, Eastern Bank, and Hill Holiday, noted a January 10 Boston Globe article, which went on to report:
Advocates say backing from the world of sports, which has not traditionally been a bastion of support for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender causes, demonstrates the increasingly mainstream appeal of their campaign. …
Massachusetts lawmakers approved legal protections for transgender people in housing, employment, lending, and public education in 2011. But they left public accommodations out of the bill amid concerns about bathroom and locker room privacy.
Advocates revived the public accommodations push last year and lobbied intensely for passage of the legislation before the Christmas break before running into resistance in the House.
They say their best chance for passage this year may be in the coming weeks, before the budget process starts to consume the Legislature and the pressures of the coming election make it more difficult to get a vote on an issue that makes some lawmakers skittish.
