FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Carisa Cunningham (617) 426-1350

November 15, 2011

GLAD Responds to Favorable Committee Vote on Transgender Equal Rights Bill

Statement of Jennifer Levi, Director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders’ (GLAD) Transgender Rights Project, on the Joint Committee on the Judiciary’s favorable vote on the Transgender Equal Rights Bill:

“GLAD is happy that the Joint Committee on the Judiciary has finally released the Transgender Equal Rights Bill and has recommended that the bill ‘ought to pass.’ The version released by the committee would provide essential protections for the transgender community in employment, education, housing, and in situations where people face hate-based violence.

“GLAD supports passage of this bill. To be sure, the bill is not perfect. It does not include critical protections in public accommodations that the transgender community needs and deserves. We want complete protections for transgender people but also understand political reality. We cannot walk away from the legislature’s first step toward securing protections for the most marginalized members of our community. As a member organization of the Transgender Equal Rights Coalition, we stand with our coalition partners in our fight for comprehensive civil rights protections for the transgender community. We will continue our work to educate the legislature on why public accommodations are critical to ensuring that transgender people are fully protected under the law.”