Amid continued attempts by the Trump administration to roll back transgender rights in the United States, Massachusetts voters are set to decide whether or not to eliminate a 2016 state law protecting transgender individuals from discrimination in public spaces like restaurants and shops.
The 6 November ballot question will mark the first statewide referendum in the country that threatens to revoke previously guaranteed transgender rights. If the law is successfully repealed, transgender rights activists worry that it could trigger similar campaigns elsewhere in the country.
“Question 3 poses significant consequences for transgender people across Massachusetts, but it also would have significant consequences for transgender people across the country,” said Sarah McBride, the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT rights group.
“If opponents of equality can win here they’re going to take those strategies, they’re going to take those tactics and they’re going to try to replicate them in other places,” she added.
Ballot question 3 asks voters if they want to keep or repeal a 2016 law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in public spaces and allows them to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.
The group behind the ballot question is Keep MA Safe. They charge that with the current law in place, women and children are endangered as men can enter women’s locker rooms and restrooms at will by simply stating that they identify as a woman. The group’s logo features a man standing on a toilet to peep on a woman in the next stall. And their campaign ads portray a man lying in wait in a bathroom stall before spying on an unsuspecting woman. As she unbuttons her blouse, the stall door begins to open and a deep grunt is heard.
“We believe everyone deserves to feel comfortable and safe when they’re using the locker room, bathroom, changing area or public shower. And that everyone includes women who don’t want men in their private spaces,” said Andrew Beckwith, the president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, one of the key backers of the No on 3 campaign that aims to repeal the law.
Beckwith maintains the purpose of the efforts to repeal the anti-discrimination law is to keep women safe. But activists on the other side say it was born out of simple anti-trans bigotry and prejudice.
But while Beckwith argues safety is at the core of the repeal efforts, the views of the Massachusetts Family Institute appear consistent with those of the Christian right. The group says it is committed to “strengthening the family” and Judeo-Christian values. They say marriage can only be between a man and a woman, promote sexual abstinence outside of marriage and oppose euthanasia and abortion as well as the legalization of recreational drugs.
Mason Dunn is the co-chair of Freedom for All Massachusetts, the campaign to keep the anti-discrimination law in place. He says he is cautiously optimistic that efforts to keep the law will succeed.
“I know that this state values respect and dignity for all people, so I’m feeling good that those values will be maintained by voting yes on three this November,” he said.
According to recent polls, support for keeping the law is at more than 70%. However, there is some concern among Yes on 3 campaigners about the wording of the ballot question; while a “yes” vote generally signifies a vote to change something, in this question “yes” signifies keeping the status quo.
A study from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law published last month found that Massachusetts’ anti-discrimination laws did not lead to more criminal incidents in bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms.
This month, the Associated Press reported that records it requested from the state’s attorney general’s office and the state’s anti-discrimination agency showed only a “handful” of complaints related to Massachusetts’ anti-discrimination law. None of those complaints alleged predation in locker rooms or bathrooms.
The Massachusetts ballot measure comes amid a series of attempted rollbacks of transgender protections by the Trump administration.
Just weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump’s administration got rid of federal protections that allowed public school students to use bathrooms that corresponded with their gender identity.
Last year, Trump said that transgender individuals would no longer be allowed to serve in the military, saying that they caused “tremendous medical costs and disruption”. However, that move has been blocked by federal courts.
In October last year, the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, issued a memo saying that the federal law against workplace discrimination did not encompass transgender workers.
Just this week it was revealed that the Trump administration was considering defining gender as male or female, unchangeable and defined at birth. And on Thursday, the Guardian found out that the US mission to the United Nations was trying to eliminate the word “gender” from UN human rights documents.
Transgender rights activists say that the Trump administration is trying to define them out of existence.
“Anytime they seek to license discrimination or legalize discrimination, it emboldens politicians and activists at all levels to follow suit” said McBride. “They embolden discrimination and violence in the day-to-day lives of transgender people. And that is dangerous, it is cruel and it is heartless.”
Last week supporters of the Yes on 3 campaign gathered at an LGBT youth center in downtown Boston to push their message. Among them was Laverne Cox, the Emmy-nominated transgender actor who stars in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black.
“Even when we think we have our rights, there are still people out there who want to take them away,” said Cox. “Massachusetts has the opportunity to send a message to this administration, has an opportunity to send a message to the rest of the country that this is not who we are as Americans, it is not who we are as human beings, that we respect the humanity of everyone.”
Cox recounted experiences with discrimination, harassment and violence that she has faced as a trans woman. For a while, she considered suicide, leaving notes around her New York apartment with her name and preferred pronouns in the hopes that she would not be misgendered in death.
Activists say discrimination against transgender individuals remains rife in Massachusetts and across the country. A 2014 survey found that 65% of transgender and non-binary Massachusetts residents had experienced discrimination in public places over the previous 12 months.
Chase Strangio, a transgender staff attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT and Aids Project, also spoke in favor of keeping the law last Wednesday.
“For me, voting yes on 3 is a vote for my existence, it is a vote to affirm the truth of who I am,” he said. “This is really life or death.”
Yes on 3 campaigners on Wednesday also highlighted the importance of protecting the rights of transgender individuals in the state who are too young to vote.
One of those too young to vote is Ashton Mota, a 14-year-old high school freshman from Lowell who hopes to pursue a career in law.
“Being trans isn’t the only thing that defines me, it is but one part of who I am,” he said. “However, upon learning that I am trans, I am often stripped of my humanity. I am no longer viewed as a promise for the future. Instead, I am seen as an issue that needs to be handled.”
