BOSTON (AP) — Critics of proposals to extend non-discrimination protections to transgender people in public spaces in Massachusetts said the state should instead focus on the privacy rights of children and women.
At a Statehouse hearing Tuesday, Andover Republican state Rep. James Lyons said the bills could allow a 14 or 15-year-old boy to decide he is female and walk into a girl’s locker room.
Supporters of the changes — including Attorney General Maura Healey, U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy and dozens of lawmakers — said transgender individuals are far more likely to experience discrimination.
The bills would expand a 2011 state law protecting transgender people from discrimination in the workplace and housing by adding “gender identity” to the state’s civil rights laws.
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Gov. Charlie Baker said nobody should experience discrimination, but “the devil’s always in the details.”
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