Maryland's Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act, which passed the House over the weekend by an 86-52 vote, the first time such a bill has passed the House, is now in the hands of the Senate, and movement there has advocates concerned.
A hearing on the bill is scheduled in the Senate Rules Committee in the coming days, and not in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, the path such a bill would normally take.
Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County) chairs that committee, with Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery County) serving as its co-chair.
According to transgender activist Dana Beyer, who has been monitoring movement of the bill, the switch is bad news.
“It’s bad,” Beyer says, adding that there’s also no explanation given as to why the bill is going to the Rules committee.
“We don’t trust Frosh and this seems to be his way of killing it and leaving himself with clean hands,” Beyer says. “Bills don’t go to Rules Committee unless there’s a problem with them. This is not the normal process. There really is no reason for it. I would say this doesn’t look good, and there’s no excuse for it.”
Another activist in Maryland who has been lobbying for the legislation, Cathy Brennan, says the move means that the bill is "dead."
"Public accommodations" were removed as a provision in the bill, apparently in order to help it pass the Senate, a move which angered some advocates. At the moment, the bill's fate remains unclear.