News :: GLBT
Women’s and children’s groups rebut ’bathroom bill’ rhetoric by Ethan Jacobs
associate editorWednesday Jul 15, 2009 On July 13, the day before the legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary heard testimony on the transgender rights bill (see "Lawmakers raise concerns..." page 1), a coalition of women’s and children’s advocacy groups held a press conference on the State House’s Grand Staircase to respond to opponents’ efforts to label the legislation a "bathroom bill." The bill, House Bill 1728, would rewrite the state’s non-discrimination and hate crimes laws to make them transgender inclusive. In radio ads and in e-mails to their supporters and lawmakers the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), a conservative Christian advocacy organization leading the charge to defeat the bill, claims the bill would threaten women and children by allowing sexual predators in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. Advocates who spoke at the press conference argued that efforts to label the bill a threat to women and children were empty fear-mongering.
"We find it incredulous that rather than speaking out against the violence perpetrated against those who are transgender because of their gender identity, the opposition has fabricated fear about the violence that someone who is transgender, or who pretends to be, will inflict on you and me," said Toni Troop, director of communications for the statewide domestic violence coalition Jane Doe Inc.
Other organizations announcing their support for the bill at the press conference included the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women (Mass. NOW), the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC), the City of Boston Women’s Commission, the City of Cambridge Women’s Commission, the League of Women Voters, the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Victim Rights Law Center, and the Women’s Bar Association. Mass. NOW organized the press conference.
Nancy Scannell, director of policy and planning for the MSPCC, said her organization supports H.1728 because it believes "that discrimination is a serious detriment to the wellbeing of children and families." She also disputed claims that the bill would put children at risk of attacks by sexual predators.
"But let me also address the relationship of this bill to the terrible scourge of child sexual abuse. Simply put, it has none," said Scannell.
Marie Turley, executive director of the City of Boston Women’s Commission, said in the years since Boston passed a citywide transgender-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance in 2002 there has been no increase in victimization of women and children in public bathrooms.
"We have found in those seven years that the kinds of fears and trepidations that this campaign is raising have not been actualized," said Turley.
Whether the organizations’ efforts to rebut the "bathroom bill" rhetoric at the press conference were successful remains to be seen. The conference attracted little media attention on the day of the hearing before the judiciary committee. Other than this reporter there appeared to be only two other journalists in the audience, and a search of Google News showed that only State House News Service covered the press conference as of July 14. Neither the Boston Globe nor the Boston Herald reported on the event. Last week Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose), a member of the judiciary committee and a co-sponsor of the trans rights bill, said MFI’s "bathroom bill" rhetoric was one of the major stumbling blocks to winning the support of some of her fellow committee members (see "Back to Beacon Hill," July 9).
Kris Mineau, president of MFI, claims his organization’s message is winning over lawmakers and the public. He said the women’s and children’s advocacy groups were speaking in favor of the bill "because they have their political agenda, as we have ours. Our message is resonating, so they’re uniting their forces to try to tone it down."
Ethan Jacobs can be reached at ejacobs@baywindows.com
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