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Mar. 5th, 2008 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaI took the day off of work yesterday so i could be at the State House to observe, and perhaps even testify, as a legislative panel held hearings on HB 1722, which would add transgender to the classes protected against violence and discrimination statewide. Right now, there is only an inconsistent patchwork of city codes, state regulations, and legal findings.
I had to leave at 5:15 well before they were done. An email sent to one list i'm on came from someone who testified at 9:30, well before the session ended.
It was mostly heartening. At this point i honestly think it's going to happen. A supportive letter from Governor Patrick was read at the outset; several people from the Bar Association were there to support us; Dr. Spack from the Children's Hospital gave some powerful expert testimony; labor and business came out to support the bill; and so on. Also, of course, there were personal testimonies.
I'm afraid, though, that i get spitting mad about MassResistance. Here is a summary of the arguments they presented as to why the bill should not be passed:
1. Transpeople are mentally ill. [And so, therefore, deserve to be exploited and discriminated against, i suppose.]
2. There are too few transpeople for us to really care about. [Minorities deserve to be mistreated if they're too small to raise a fuss about it.]
3. [The real clincher] The picture of a stick person wearing a skirt is a glyph of magical warding that keeps sexual predators out of women's bathrooms, but its power will be nullified if predators only have to wear a dress in order to go in there now.
Seriously, this is what you've got? Is this what reactionary-Christianity is reduced to? I'm just... really, i'm just tired of having to share civilization with these hateful thugs. It's really, truly okay with them if people like me are beaten, killed, raped, fired, evicted, live homeless and hungry on the streets. Go away, just go away already.
I had to leave at 5:15 well before they were done. An email sent to one list i'm on came from someone who testified at 9:30, well before the session ended.
It was mostly heartening. At this point i honestly think it's going to happen. A supportive letter from Governor Patrick was read at the outset; several people from the Bar Association were there to support us; Dr. Spack from the Children's Hospital gave some powerful expert testimony; labor and business came out to support the bill; and so on. Also, of course, there were personal testimonies.
I'm afraid, though, that i get spitting mad about MassResistance. Here is a summary of the arguments they presented as to why the bill should not be passed:
1. Transpeople are mentally ill. [And so, therefore, deserve to be exploited and discriminated against, i suppose.]
2. There are too few transpeople for us to really care about. [Minorities deserve to be mistreated if they're too small to raise a fuss about it.]
3. [The real clincher] The picture of a stick person wearing a skirt is a glyph of magical warding that keeps sexual predators out of women's bathrooms, but its power will be nullified if predators only have to wear a dress in order to go in there now.
Seriously, this is what you've got? Is this what reactionary-Christianity is reduced to? I'm just... really, i'm just tired of having to share civilization with these hateful thugs. It's really, truly okay with them if people like me are beaten, killed, raped, fired, evicted, live homeless and hungry on the streets. Go away, just go away already.
