In a press release from Equality Maryland:
MARYLAND TAKES A STEP TOWARD FAIRNESS WITH HOUSE COMMITTEE'S PASSAGE OF BILL TO PREVENT EMPLOYMENT AND HOUSING DISCRIMINATIONEquality Maryland's action email is below the fold.Equality Maryland vows to keep the fight to ensure that all Marylanders are treated with dignity and respect
Annapolis, Maryland, March 24, 2011 - Today the House Health & Government Operations Committee in Annapolis voted 15-8 in favor of sending House Bill 235 - the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act - to the house floor for consideration by the full House of Delegates.
House Bill 235 would add gender identity to the state's anti-discrimination laws in the area of employment, housing, and credit. The subcommittee approved a few non-substantive amendments which the lead sponsor, Equality Maryland, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force all found them to be relatively inconsequential. They committee also modified the definition of gender identity within the bill. This definition will provide protection both for a person's gender identity, as well as the way in which they express their gender in terms of presentation. Equality Maryland worked with the subcommittee and committee to ensure that both areas would be covered under the bill's definition.
Lead Sponsor, Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk: "Every Marylander should expect to work or live in comfortable housing without fear of losing either because of who they are. HB 235 provides the protection necessary to make sure that every Marylander can live without fear of discrimination."
Lead Sponsor, Del. Ariana Kelly: "Transgender Marylanders face profound and often crippling discrimination in housing and employment. This bill [HB 235] is an important step towards mitigating this unjust discrimination. It will improve people's lives, and it is clearly the right thing to do.
Equality Maryland, Executive Director, Morgan Meneses-Sheets: "All hardworking people in our state, including transgender people, should have a chance to earn a living and provide for themselves and their families. Nobody should have to live in fear that they can be legally fired for reasons that have nothing to do with their job performance.
Discrimination happens a lot in Maryland. Data shows that 1 in 5 transgender people in Maryland have lost a job because they are transgender, and 12% have become homeless. This law is a matter of life-or-death for some Marylanders."
Update: Reaction from The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force is below. Others added as they come in.
Update 2: Here is how members of the House Health & Government Operations Committee voted on HB 235:
Yes:
* Peter Hammen (D-46 )
* Shane Pendergrass (D- 13)
* Eric M Bromwell (D-8)
* Bonnie Cullison (D-19)
* Robert Costa (D- 33B)
* James Hubbard (D-23A)
* Ariana Kelly (D- 16)
* Dan Morhaim (D - 11)
* Peter Murphy (D-28)
* Shirley Nathan-Pulliam (D-10)
* Nathaniel Oaks (D- 41)
* Joseline Pena-Melynk (D-21)
* Kirill Reznik (D-39)
* Shawn Tarrant (D-40)
* Veronica Turner (D-26)No:
* John Donoghue (D- 2C)
* Donald Elliott (D-4B)
* William Frank (D-42)
* A. Wade Kach (D-5B)
* Nic Kipke (D- 31)
* Susan Krebs (D-9B)
* Patrick McDonough (D-7)
* Justin Ready (D-5A)
Earlier today, the Health & Government Operations Committee (HGO) passed House Bill 235, the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act by a vote of 15 to 8. The bill will now move to the House floor. This is an exciting victory for the transgender community and for all citizens who value fairness.We need your help to keep this bill moving and we don't have much time. The deadline to pass bills out of the House is Monday, March 28th. Will you contact your Delegate today?
CLICK HERE to contact your delegates and urge them to support HB 235!
With today's action, the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act is poised for success in the House and a swift move to the Senate floor. The passage of this legislation is critical for transgender Marylanders who need the state to take a first step in adding these vital protections to housing and employment this year.
Lurleen, I want to reassure you that Equality Maryland is committed to ending discrimination against the transgender community, and to continuing the fight for other critical needs such as protections in public accommodations.
Will you stand with us in fighting for equal treatment of transgender Marylanders?
CLICK HERE to contact your Delegates now and urge them to vote 'yes' on HB 235.
Whether you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender queer or an ally, your voice is essential to our fight for equality. This legislative session has reminded us that our fight for equality isn't always easy, but we have an opportunity right now to make progress. For Maryland to truly be considered the Free State, we must end discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. Will you contact your delegates today?
Join with me, Lurleen, in working to end discrimination against transgender Marylanders.
Yours in Equality,Morgan Meneses-Sheets
Executive DirectorPS - We have less than a month left in the 2011 legislative session. To truly make an impact, it's important that more and more Marylanders who believe in LGBT equality to speak out. Will you forward this message onto 5 of your friends?
Response from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:
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MEDIA CONTACT:Inga Sarda-Sorensen
Director of Communications
(Office) 646.358.1463
(Cell) 202.641.5592
isorensen@theTaskForce.orgMaryland House committee passes Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act WASHINGTON, March 25 - The Maryland House of Delegates Health and Government Operations Committee today passed the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act (HB 235), which would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and credit. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been working in partnership with Equality Maryland to pass the bill, which now moves to the full House for a vote.
Lisa Mottet, director of the Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project, testified in favor of the bill during a March 9 committee hearing. She shared data from the recently released groundbreaking report Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force with the National Center for Transgender Equality. This nationwide study included more than 6,400 people in the U.S.
The study found that Maryland transgender and gender non-conforming people were being fired, harassed, passed over for promotion and not hired simply for being who they were. This was not a small problem: 71 percent said they experienced harassment or mistreatment on the job and 18 percent reported losing their job just because of who they are. Likely due to this discrimination, transgender Marylanders experienced poverty (having a household income under $10,000 per year) at nearly three times the national average; 12 percent of transgender Marylanders reported experiencing homelessness; 17 percent said they were denied a home/apartment due to being transgender, and 22 percent reported having to find temporary spaces to stay in an attempt to avoid homelessness.
Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
"The startling statistics and heart-wrenching personal stories found in our national survey on transgender discrimination show that this law will literally save lives. Income from employment is critical to paying for shelter, food, health care - basic necessities that many people simply take for granted. No one should fear being jobless, homeless and going hungry because of bias and discrimination. Maryland should provide these basic tenets of equal opportunity to transgender Marylanders, as it already does to many others. We thank the Maryland House of Delegates Health and Government Operations Committee for passing this important legislation, and urge the full House and Senate to quickly follow suit."More about the Task Force's work in Maryland The Task Force has been partnering with Equality Maryland by contributing financial support to underwrite the salaries of a field director and a field organizer; committing organizers to work on the ground in Maryland throughout the legislative session; and providing training and technical assistance to Equality Maryland's field team.
To learn more about the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, visit www.theTaskForce.org
and follow us on Twitter: @TheTaskForce.
