(Editor’s note: This article appears in the current July/August 2016 print edition of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.)
With the passage of the Bay State’s law extending public accommodations right to transgender people, says Deborah Shields, executive director at MassEquality, the statewide LGBT advocacy group that has worked behind the scenes on this and so much other legendary legislation, “time and energy should open up—hopefully,” she adds with an optomistic laugh—“to be able to work on some of the other bills” before the current legislative session ends on July 31.
Two pieces of legislation at the forefront are the conversion therapy house bill, which “would prohibit licensed professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a minor,” and the elder cultural competency-training house bill, which “would require the Executive Office of Elder Affairs to develop a curriculum for appropriate and culturally competent services to be delivered to our LGBTQ elders,” as described by a June 8 e-blast from MassEquality.
According to MassEquality, the elder cultural competency-training bill is currently included in both the house and senate budgets and is likely to move on to the budget conference committee. The anti-conversion therapy bill is all set to move out of the house committee on steering, policy and scheduling.
The anti-conversion therapy bill’s timing is especially crucial since, despite outcries against this practice from the scientific community and its ban in other states including Vermont (on May 25), the practice is still being performed in Massachusetts, notably on transgender youth. However, notes, the e-blast, the current bill on Beacon Hill “exempts religious organizations, unfortunately, so they’re still allowed to ‘pray the gay away.’” Also, a bill similar to the one passed in Vermont, sadly, was recently killed in committee after successful passage in both that state’s house and senate.
Equally important to MassEquality, Shields stresses, are: house and senate bills that would require insurance companies to cover treatment for lipodystrophy, a debilitating and disfiguring side effect of HIV meds; house and senate bills that would ensure comprehensive, medically accurate and age appropriate sex education in Bay State schools; and a bill to increase access to medical and dental care for homeless youth.
Except for the senate’s version of the lipodystrophy bill, which the senate unanimously passed, these bills are also currently in committee.
“Unfortunately, the session is running out quickly and there’s only so much time and so many people to be able to work on the other bills. So I don’t think we’ll see as many bills passed as we would have liked this year. Because there really is a sense that there is ‘a gay agenda, Dorothy,’ and that we can only get so many of the bills passed on that agenda during any given time.”
“Wizard of Oz” references aside, Shields says MassEquality aims to give each and every bill the same attention the organization has been devoting to the transgender public access fight.
Of late, the organization’s time has been filled with “a lot of conversations with members of the house and senate, facilitating meetings between constituents and their representatives and senators “to tell their stories of what it’s like to be transgender and how important [the passage of this legislation] is to them. We’ve organized a whole lot of lobby days to bring both trans adults and children to the state house,” she says. “We’ve held community meetings in areas where a legislator is a little on the fence, or where they say ‘there’s nobody in my district who’s transgender,’ or ‘I’m hearing too much from the opposition.”
With summer here, and especially between legislative sessions, now is a great time for members of the community to get involved Shields says. “We put out a call to action every other week. It’s such a hot time and the asks [from different partnering groups focusing on the specific issues] are really different but certainly everyone can plug into our MassEquality e-blasts to get involved with some of the partners who are working on these important issues.”
“We love it when people donate their time or treasure,” she says. “We always love it when people throw house parties for our causes. Or just invite us to come and talk to a community group or their employers so that we can spread the word. And we want people to volunteer to help us with various Pride events, or to help us lay the groundwork for various campaigns we’re working on.”
MassEquality has a three-fold mission: to advocate, to educate and to elect. A cofounding member of Freedom to Marry, the group works in coalition with other organizations. “For example, says Shields, “we’re working with partners like GLAD, AIDS Action Committee, Community Research Initiative and a whole bunch of other players” to move the lipodystrophy legislation towards passage. This summer, MassEquality is also busy screening office-seekers for endorsement. “We interview them and then we have a PAC board that votes to endorse them, and once that happens they absolutely need people in their districts to make calls, go door to door, help at rallies, fundraisers and in campaign offices.”
“Right now I think most everything has stalled” up on Beacon Hill, Shields says. But it’s the perfect time to regroup and get ready to fight the good fights of the fall. [x]
To sign up for MassEqualiy eblast, learn more about the organization or lend a hand, go to massequality.org.
