New transgender rights bill sought

BOSTON (WWLP) - In celebration of National Coming Out Day, lawmakers and supporters are renewing calls for a transgendered equal rights bill.

Lawmakers and LGBT advocates are pushing for a bill that would add "gender identity and expression" to existing state civil rights laws.

The addition would have the effect of prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in areas such as employment, housing and education. The bill also makes it a hate crime to commit an offense against a transgender person because of their gender identity or expression.

Supporters of the bill say the state will benefit from the legislation because employers won't be able to fire competent employees based on their gender identity and increase unemployment.

"For transgender people who have the skills and are being discriminated in employment, you know that employer would not be able to do that, and so those folks would hopefully get jobs and not behaving to access state run services,” said Gunner Scott, Executive Director of the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition.

Robyn Oches, a board member for the group MassEquality, is upset with the way things are. "I feel embarrassed to live in a state where we don't have full equality, where people can still be fired from there jobs or denied housing or hotel rooms just because they're transgender,” Oches said.

Out of over 250 people in Massachusetts questioned by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 76% said they were harassed or mistreated in their jobs.

15 states, Washington D.C. and 136 cities and counties in Massachusetts already include "gender identity and expression" in their non-discrimination laws.