House will let Senate act first on transgender bill
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Attorney General Maura Healey's office would be required to provide agreed to $31,000 in fines for a Shrewsbury company.
After a controversial transgender rights bill cleared a key hurdle last Friday with two versions advancing through committee, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday he "appreciated" the changes made to the House version, while Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he was still reviewing the brief additions.
Meanwhile, the main group pushing for that bill's passage has largely gone silent in the days since two bills moved out of the Judiciary Committee with favorable recommendations.
"We are really pleased with the developments made on this bill. We do have some questions about the redraft, and we look forward to working through those in the next few weeks with lawmakers," Freedom Massachusetts said in a statement after the committee referred one bill to the House and another to the Senate.
Asked about the outstanding questions, Freedom Massachusetts spokesman Matt Wilder declined to elaborate, saying activists want to talk to legislators first.
He later added, "Our complete focus is on passing a bill that will stand as an example for all the states that follow the lead of Massachusetts in protecting transgender people. This is the only proactive transgender-specific protections bill before any legislature in the country this session. We want to get it right."
While Baker has declined to specify details of a transgender accommodations bill that might give him pause, the Republican said Monday he "appreciated the clarity that was provided by the bill that came out on the House side."
"But obviously this is an important issue and as we've said before we'll look forward to reviewing whatever makes it through the process and gets to our desk," Baker said.
Addressing reporters after meeting with Baker and Rosenberg for nearly two hours Monday, House Speaker Robert DeLeo chimed in to say that he fully supported the new House version of the bill, but would wait until after May 12 when the Senate plans to debate the issue to decide how to proceed.
"We'll wait until we see what happens in the Senate. Then, we'll decide accordingly," DeLeo said.
Rosenberg said Senate Democrats will discuss the two versions of the bill during their private caucus on Wednesday in anticipation of a vote a week from Thursday.
"We're reviewing the language," he said when asked about the House redraft, later adding, "We have 40 members of the Senate and each of their opinions is very important and I want to hear them all."
Marking a potential breakthrough on the issue, the Judiciary Committee on Friday backed a Senate bill and a redrafted House bill designed to protect transgender individuals from harassment and give businesses clear guidance to implement the proposal. Both bills ban discrimination against transgender people in public spaces, and would allow transgender individuals to use the public restroom or locker room that matches their gender identity.
The House redraft would take effect Jan. 1, 2017 and states "any public accommodation including without limitation any entity that offers the provision of goods, services, or access to the public that lawfully segregates or separates access to such public accommodation or other entity based on a person's sex shall grant all persons admission to and the full enjoyment of such public accommodation or other entity consistent with the person's gender identity."
The House redraft, based on a bill (H 1577) sponsored by Reps. Byron Rushing and Denise Provost, directs the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to adopt regulations or formulate policies and make recommendations "to effectuate the purposes of this Act."
It would also require Attorney General Maura Healey's office to "issue guidance or regulations for referring to the appropriate law enforcement agency or other authority for legal action any person who asserts gender identity for an improper purpose . . . "
"I think it is responsible language and I think it is intended to protect transgender people from harassment and give guidance to businesses. It's language I'm open to," said Sen. William Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat and the Senate chair of the Judiciary Committee.
Asked if he would consider adding the same language into the Senate bill, Brownsberger said, "I'm certainly open to it."
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