The assertion comes in response to opposition to a transgender rights bill introduced Tuesday in Baltimore County, Md., by freshman Democratic councilman Tom Quirk -- his bill would protect transgender people and allow use of restrooms according to their gender identity.

WUSA-TV

Thomas Manger

In a letter sent to Quirk last week, Manger wrote, "Since this law has been in effect (in Montgomery County), we have had no reported rapes committed in restrooms by men in women’s clothing.”

But the leading opponent of the measure, Ruth Jacobs, president of Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government, said lawmakers should be concerned about women’s safety.

“Promoted as a 'gender identity anti-discrimination bill,' Human Relations Bill No. 3-12 forces the public to recognize men as women, thereby allowing men access to women's bathrooms, This takes away from a woman being a woman," Jacobs said.

"These people are confused about their gender," she added. “The bill is a direct attack on women's privacy."

Mark Patro, president of the Baltimore County’s Parents, Families and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG), told The Baltimore Sun, "This bill is about protecting people from discrimination. The bill is not about bathrooms."

The proposed law appears to have enough support on the seven-member county council to pass.

In addition to Quirk, three other council members — Democrats Vicki Almond, Cathy Bevins and Kenneth Oliver — have signed on as sponsors. The council plans to discuss the legislation at a work session in Feb. 18.

Restroom use by transgender individuals in Baltimore County suddenly became an issue last spring when a transgender woman, Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, was attacked following a confrontation with two female patrons over use of the women’s restroom in a Rosedale, Md., McDonald's restaurant.

In addition to Montgomery County's law, neighboring Baltimore City and Howard County have anti-discrimination laws. However, the bathroom provision is a controversial issue. The issue of restroom accommodation sank the Maryland General Assembly’s proposed anti-discrimination law last year.

The 63-page report, “‘They Hunt us Down for Fun’: Discrimination and Police Violence Against Transgender Women in Kuwait,” documents the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and persecution that transgender women – individuals who are born male, but identify as female – have faced at the hands of police.

The report also documents the discrimination that transgender women have faced on a daily basis – including by members of the public – as a result of the law, an amendment to penal code article 198.

Based on interviews with 40 transgender women, as well as with ministry of interior officials, lawyers, doctors, and members of Kuwaiti civil society, the report found that the arbitrary, ill-defined provisions of the law has allowed for numerous abuses to take place.

“No one – regardless of his or her gender identity – deserves to be arrested on the basis of a vague, arbitrary law and then abused and tortured by police,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“The Kuwaiti government has a duty to protect all of its residents, including groups who face popular disapproval, from brutal police behavior and the application of an unfair law," she said.

Human Rights Watch documented that transgender individuals were being arrested even when they were wearing male clothes, only later to be forced by police to dress in women’s clothing, who claimed that they arrested them in that attire.

In some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, transgender women said police arrested them because they had a “soft voice” or “smooth skin.”

Speaking with Gay Middle East, a transgender Kuwaiti activist pleaded, "The situation in Kuwait is horrible for us, just intolerable. There are at least thirteen transgender women in jail right now.”

Attempts to interview the prisoners were denied by the Kuwaiti authorities.

Despite an official recognition of gender identity disorder (GID) by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health as a legitimate medical condition, the law criminalizing “imitating the opposite sex” makes no exception for people who have been diagnosed with GID.

ABC has cancelled the series “Work It” after only two episodes. The series debuted on January 3, 2012 to low ratings, and, according to Entertainment Weekly, dropped another 20 percent this week.

“While many of ABC’s positive and groundbreaking portrayals of LGBT people have been critical and popular successes, the public had little interest in this outdated show,” said Herndon Graddick, Senior Director of Programs and Communications at GLAAD.

GLAAD, together with many advocates including Autumn Sandeen, and other LGBT organizations including HRC, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative and the Transgender Law Center spoke out against the series for its potential to cause harm to the transgender community. Women’s advocacy groups and members of the Puerto Rican community have also criticized the show’s premise and jokes.

While the show did not explicitly address transgender people, many viewers unfamiliar with the realities of being transgender will still make the connection.

According to ABC, ‘Work It’ centered on two unemployed men who have "learned the hard way that the current recession is more of a 'man-cession' and their skills aren't in high demand." One finds out that a pharmaceuticals company is hiring sales reps, but only female sales reps. He goes to the interview dressed in heels, a skirt, and makeup and gets hired as a woman.

Last month, after viewing the pilot, GLAAD placed a full page ad in media industry publication Variety with HRC. The organizations also published a joint opinion piece on the Huffington Post. View the ad here.

The Variety ad noted that “by encouraging the audience to laugh at the characters’ attempts at womanhood, the show gives license to similar treatment of transgender women.”

GLAAD and HRC included photos of transgender Americans, legal facts and statistics from a recent report from the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force on the discrimination that transgender Americans face:

• Transgender Americans can be legally fired in 34 states today simply for being who they are.
  • 97% of self-identified transgender people reported being harassed or abused at work.
• 26 percent reported losing their jobs because they are transgender.

“As a result of this campaign, an important dialogue has been started in Hollywood and mainstream media about the real discrimination faced by transgender people today,” GLAAD’s Herndon Graddick said.

The bill (SB 2282) would institute a $50 fine for anybody who does not use the public restroom or dressing room that matches the sex identification on his or her birth certificate:

(b) Except as provided in § 68-15-303, where a restroom or dressing room in a public building is designated for use by members of one particular sex, only members of that particular sex shall be permitted to use that restroom or dressing room.

(c) A violation of subsection (b) is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a to a fine of fifty dollars ($50.00).

If passed, this bill would make Tennessee a particularly unfriendly place for people who are transgender. Tennessee law does not allow for the sex to be changed on birth certificates, which means this law would make it illegal for transgender people to utilize any public accommodations that match their gender. It would also impose on any businesses — such as Macy’s — that have transgender-inclusive policies.

Last year, the Family Action Council of Tennessee ran transphobic ads to support a bill that banned all municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people. The ads rehashed the “bathroom meme,” the fear that all transgender people are sexual predators trying to use the wrong restroom to find children to abuse.

In reality, there has never been a case of someone using a transgender identity to molest children, nor is there anything to suggest that this bill would do anything to make children safer from actual predators. (HT: Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition.)

Much has unfolded in the day since the bill was first introduced.

First, state Sen. Bo Watson (R) has withdrawn his version of the bill. He had introduced it as a courtesy to state Rep. Richard Floyd (R), who represents the same region of Tennessee. In a statement to ThinkProgress, Watson’s communications director explained that “Sen. Watson concluded that there are far more pressing issues facing the state of Tennessee at this time.”

Floyd now stands alone as the sponsor of the bill (HB 2279), which he defended yesterday using incredibly transphobic rhetoric. In no uncertain terms, he explained that he would resort to violence if he ever encountered someone transgender in a dressing room:

FLOYD: I believe if I was standing at a dressing room and my wife or one of my daughters was in the dressing room and a man tried to go in there — I don’t care if he thinks he’s a woman and tries on clothes with them in there — I’d just try to stomp a mudhole in him and then stomp him dry.

Don’t ask me to adjust to their perverted way of thinking and put my family at risk. We cannot continue to let these people dominate how society acts and reacts. Now if somebody thinks he’s a woman and he’s a man and wants to try on women’s clothes, let him take them into the men’s bathroom or dressing room.

In an extended interview with WTVF News Chanel 5, Floyd doubled down on his comments, claiming that his bill doesn’t “penalize anybody,” it “protects everybody,” and he could “care less” what transgender advocacy groups think. Watch it:

This bill is nothing short of an outright attack on transgender people, and Floyd’s comments make it clear he lacks any understanding or compassion for the trans community. Enforcement of this bill could lead to ID checks in public restrooms and would be devastatingly stigmatizing, especially considering Tennessee offers no option for individuals to change their birth certificate gender markers.

Even individuals passing through one of Tennessee’s airports or bus stops could be targeted for these fines, just for being transgender.

Officials with an expanded coalition backing the marriage bill and a new transgender advocacy group leading the effort on behalf of the Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Act say they are hopeful that the legislature will pass both measures before it adjourns for the year in April.

“It’s all hands on deck with both bills,” said Carrie Evans, executive director of the statewide LGBT group Equality Maryland. “We’re talking to many lawmakers, including Republicans.”

Evans and others working on the two bills were cautious about predicting when leaders of the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates will bring the measures up for a vote, saying control over the timing of the bills was exclusively in the hands of the lawmakers.

Supporters were also cautious about disclosing strategy for defeating an expected voter referendum that experts say will almost certainly be brought before the electorate in November – in the midst of the U.S. presidential election – if the Maryland Legislature passes a marriage bill this spring.

Public opinion polls show voters in the state are evenly divided over whether to vote for or against same-sex marriage.

Under rules of the Maryland Legislature, the committees with jurisdiction over the bills must hold a public hearing on the marriage and gender identity bills, even though the two bills were the subject of lengthy and contentious hearings less than a year ago during the legislature’s 2011 session.

The Democratic-controlled Senate approved the marriage bill last March in what supporters called an historic 25-21 vote. But the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates killed the measure for the year by voting to send it back to committee after supporters determined they were a few votes short of the 71 votes needed to pass it in the 141-member House.

In what some called an ironic twist, the House of Delegates passed the transgender bill last year before the Senate killed it by voting to send it back to a Senate committee. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Prince George’s and Calvert Counties) reportedly orchestrated the decision to hold off on a Senate vote, saying a number of key supporters changed their minds and threatened to vote against the bill.

Shortly after the defeat of the marriage bill last year, supporters led by the Human Rights Campaign formed Marylanders for Marriage Equality, an expanded coalition of organizations with a track record of political clout with state lawmakers. Among the coalition partners are the NAACP of Baltimore, the Maryland ACLU, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Equality Maryland and HRC are also members of the coalition.

Coalition spokesperson Kevin Nix of HRC has said each coalition partner brings unique skills and expertise to the lobbying effort on behalf of the marriage bill.

But coalition officials haven’t disclosed which, if any, lawmakers who were uncommitted or against the bill last year have indicated support this time around.

“The good news and the bad news is the legislators are the same,” said Mark McLaurin, a gay man who serves as political director for the Local 500 of the SEIU of Maryland.

He noted that having the same players is helpful to a degree because they are already informed on the marriage and transgender bills. But McLaurin cautioned that with no election taking place since the 2011 legislative session, it may be hard to line up the additional supporters needed to pass the bills.

“Quite frankly, despite the great work that’s been done since the last session, I haven’t heard very many announced conversions from no to yes,” he said. “So in many respects I feel we’re in the same place that we were.”

Like others lobbying for the marriage bill, McLaurin said he is hopeful that Gov. Martin O’Malley’s decision to include the marriage and transgender bills as part of his legislative package this year will provide an important boost for both measures.

Continuing a series of posts on the significant developments in the LGBT community in 2011, there were numerous advances around the world in the rights and visibility of transgender and intersex people.

Transgender and Intersex rights

One of the world's most progressive transgender equality laws was passed in Argentina's parliament and in the UK a plan for comprehensive changes to ensure equality for trans people was announced. Chile also passed an anti-discrimination based on gender identity law as did California and Massachusetts. But in Puerto Rico a roll-back of legal protection was proposed.

Anna Grodzka

The Pole Anna Grodzka (left) became the first transsexual Member of Parliament in Europe, and only the second trans parliamentarian in the world.

Germany removed the surgery requirement for legal gender change, as did Kyrgyzstan.

Pakistan's Supreme Court created a "third gender" category, but authorities have been slow to implement it. This caused real problems for trans people during the flooding which hit the country this year as did a similar failure to follow through on legal change in Nepal.

The first trans rights rally took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and new trans and intersex groups appeared in Russia and in Africa and the African groups came together to meet in Uganda.

Turkey jailed trans activists for 'insulting police' but an activist won a case against police at the European Court of Human Rights. Attacks on trans people by police in Albania drew protests.

The death of trans activist Aleesha Farhana in Malaysia after courts refused to change her gender on official documents sparked mass protests and a government concession and also increased, sometimes bizarre, coverage in local media.

The first intersex mayor in the world was elected in Australia. In September, the world's first International Intersex Organizing Forum took place in Brussels.

Figures released in October showed that one transgender person is murdered somewhere in the world at least every other day.

In its Dec. 19 edition, “The Lowell Sun ran the following lyrics, meant to be sung to the tune of ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer’ as part of an article titled ‘Christmas carols — with a twist,’ written by columnist and copy editor Dan Phelps:”

Chaz Bono got turned into a man, dear.
Dancin’ with a woman on TV.
You might say there’s no such thing as Santa
Till you see what Chaz got ‘neath his tree. [...]

Now transgenders in the Bay State
Have a law that’s etched in black.
It says they can change their gender.
Then if they want, they can change it back.

Interestingly, the last line echoes the actual comments of Massachusetts Rep. Sheila Harrington (R), who asked two transgender witnesses if transgender people are able to change their genders on a “day-to-day basis” when the Judiciary Committee considered the legislation in June.

The Human Rights Campaign has condemned the lyrics, saying, “It is unacceptable for transgender Americans, and the very real challenges they face, to become comedic punch lines –- and we have an obligation to speak out against such dangerous stereotypes.”

Johnson was fired earlier this month after she violated Macy’s non-discrimination policy by challenging a transgender teenager who chose to use the woman’s changing room. With the help of the Liberty Counsel, she has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

During the segment, Fox’s Bream listened quietly as her guests repeated a number of anti-trans smears, including referring to the transgender teen as “a man... wearing lipstick” and promoting theright-wing myth that transgender protections put women and girls “in jeopardy”:

Bream didn’t find it necessary to point out that, contrary to her guests assertions, transgender people are not just people who choose to slap on some lipstick for the day.

She didn’t mention that Staver and Johnson’s view of transgender people has been strongly rejected by the American Psychological Association, which condemns attempts to discriminate on the basis of gender identity.

Nor did she point out the extreme discrimination faced by transgender men and women in America on a daily basis. A recent survey found that 53 percent of transgender respondents had experienced discrimination in public accommodations, including 37 percent that report having been harassed or disrespected in a retail store.

Instead of accurately portraying the problem of discrimination based on gender identity, Bream allowed her guests to openly chuckle as they trivialized the experience of the transgender teen and attacked Macy’s non-discrimination policy.

This isn’t the first time that Fox News has demonstrated its willingness to abandon its “fair and balanced” mantra in order to advance an anti-LGBT agenda. The network routinely conducts softball interviews with anti-LGBT victims who claim their religious freedom is under attack.

Rather than making the effort to host a real discussion about the tension between non-discrimination and religious freedom, Fox prefers to let its anti-LGBT guests do all the talking.

HRC

Vandy Beth Glenn

On Tuesday, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that the Georgia Legislature had unlawfully discriminated against Vandy Beth Glenn for firing her as bill proofreader in 2007 after she informed supervisors she intended to transition from male to female.

“An individual cannot be punished because of his or her perceived gender-nonconformity,” the court decision states. “Because these protections are afforded to everyone, they cannot be denied to a transgender individual.”

Judge Rosemary Barkett, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, which included Judge William Pryor and Senior Judge Phyllis Kravitch, determined the General Assembly’s Legislative Counsel, Sewell Brumby, violated Glenn’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause.

Lambda Legal had filed the case, known as Glenn v. Brumby, on behalf of Glenn in July 2008. In 2010, a district court had ruled previously in Glenn’s favor.

The court ruled in favor of Glenn even though no federal law is in place that specifically protects transgender people against discrimination in the workplace.

LGBT advocates see the ruling as significant because it could help make the case to bar discrimination against trans people in other situations.

Nan Hunter, a lesbian law professor at Georgetown University, said the decision advances other court rulings that have determined discrimination based on gender non-conformity amounts to sex discrimination by applying the potential protections to more people.

“It makes it extend beyond the more narrow definition of gender identity,” Hunter said. “I think it applies more broadly than to persons who have undergone surgery or hormonal treatment. That’s my sense of how the decision can be used. It is not explicit in the decision but the court used gender non-conformity, and the phrase gender-based behavioral norms, and I think that’s a very important development.”

Natalie Johnson was sacked from the Macy's Rivercenter Mall store in San Antonio after she told a supervisor that she was unwilling to honor Macy's LGBT policies because she felt by doing so would violate her religious beliefs.

Johnson told the American Family Association's blog OneNewsNow that she observed a young man wearing women's clothes and make-up exiting a women's dressing room and politely told him he could not re-enter because it was for the exclusive use of women. She said he angrily responded that he was a "female."

The cross-dresser was accompanied by five other individuals. The group argued with expletives that Macy’s is LGBT-friendly, to which Johnson replied that Macy’s is also non-discriminatory toward religion, and that it would go against her religious beliefs to lie to say that the young man was a woman or for her to compromise with homosexuality. The group then demanded to speak with a manager, according to OneNewsNow.

After being advised by a Macy's supervisor that company policy allows transgender individuals to utilize any dressing room they may prefer, Johnson pointed out that the same policy also protects against religious discrimination and, in this case, it protects her right to her beliefs that were being violated.

The supervisor reportedly asked if Johnson intended to comply with Macy's established policies, and when she refused, was later terminated.

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of the conservative right wing anti-gay Liberty Counsel, told OneNewsNow, "Macy’s policy which allows men to use the women’s dressing room is fraught with problems. This policy will cause significant problems and will alienate the majority of Macy’s customers."

"Macy’s has essentially opened women’s dressing rooms to every man. The LGBT agenda has become the theater of the absurd," Staver said.

A few months ago, I was on a bus trip from NYC to DC and the two young collegiates next to me were having a really intelligent discussion about the current political atmosphere. While I don’t think they were LGBT, they were certainly progressive enough.

I smiled as I listened to them banter on about the environment and the damage that some Republican candidates would do to our country. When all of a sudden, they started discussing a party they’d been to the night before and out popped the sentence “She looked like a tranny.” To me, this was jarring because as an activist, I’ve been trained that “tranny” is an offensive and downright unacceptable term to be using.

I interrupted the young men, apologized for eavesdropping for the past hour or so and let them know that the term they were using was hurtful towards transgender people. They immediately apologized and thanked me for letting them know.

At the beginning of this month on Huffington Post, the bastion of liberal blogs, there was a little survey entitled “Who looks more like a Tranny? Sofia Vergara or Blake Lively.” When it was brought to their attention that they were using an anti-trans slur, they immediately removed it and issued an apology.

And then just a few weeks ago, Kelly Osborn issued an apology for using the word in a Glamour UK interview, with regards to a transgender friend of hers. Kelly was under fire immediately and reached out to GLAAD for advice on how the word was offensive and education on how she could reach out to apologize for her gaffe. She wrote a wonderful piece, ironically enough, for Huffington Post titled "I’m retiring the word 'Tranny' ... will you join me?"

And then on Friday morning, I was referred to a video of our very own Neil Patrick Harris co-hosting “LIVE with Kelly”. The two were inhaling a gas which was the opposite of helium, whose properties actually lower your voice in the same way helium raises it. Neil made the comment “I’ve never sounded more like a tranny in my life.”

I’ve met Neil on several occasions now and have worked with his partner David a few times, and I can tell you that if Neil had ever been informed that what he said might be offensive to some people, he never would have used it. If one of the most out, positive LGBT role models out there has not been educated on this issue, then we need to be doing better work.

I know among some, there will be the desire to break out the pitchforks and torches and make an example out of NPH. But the truth of the matter is, when even members of our own community don’t know about these things, or know and use them anyway, we should pivot to education, not attack. Each moment like this is a chance to move the ball forward. I urge people to avoid jumping to the conclusion that he is a “transphobe” or that he “doesn’t give two shits about trans women.” It comes off as not only extreme, but potentially counter productive. We make a lot of assumptions about the use of a word that many have not yet been trained to avoid.

Trans issues are happily, finally coming to the forefront. With Chaz Bono’s appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” and the doors that has opened, I’m hoping to see far more attention paid to the T of the LGBT – it’s about time. But in doing so, we must find as many opportunities as we can, to educate. If we start out by attacking people who honestly have not been told otherwise, we will lose potential allies.

As expected, NPH has come through with an apology for his use of the slur:

Please continue to help educate others on potentially offensive language. Many responses to this post have been met with “I had no idea that we shouldn’t use that word” or “My friends use it all the time, I’ll ask them not to now.”

All it takes is a little education.

I would like to ask all who read this to take a little time and read this GLAAD Media Reference Guide and transgender glossary of terms. The education has to start somewhere.

And, take a look at this excellent explanation of transphobic language from Bilerico.com (thanks Vincent Villano at National Center for Transgender Equality). Click to enlarge:

About the Author:

Vandy Beth Glenn

Vandy Beth Glenn was fired as a legislative editor at the General Assembly after she disclosed she was going to transition from male to female.

According to Glenn, when she informed her boss Sewell Brumby of her planned transition, she was told it would be seen as “immoral” by Georgia’s lawmakers.

In 2006, Glenn told her direct supervisor she was in the process of becoming a woman. That Halloween, she made her first appearance at work dressed as a woman. But Sewell Brumby, then head of the Office of Legislative Counsel, found Glenn’s appearance inappropriate and asked her to leave.

“It’s unsettling to think of someone dressed in women’s clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing,” Brumby said in pretrial testimony, explaining his decision. It’s “unnatural,” he said.

In the fall of 2007, Glenn told her supervisor she would begin coming to work as a woman and would be changing her legal name to Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn. She provided the supervisor photos of herself as a woman and literature about gender identification disorder.

The supervisor told this to Brumby and gave him the written materials and photos.

On Oct. 16, 2007, Brumby called Glenn into his office and asked if she fully intended to become a woman. When Glenn said she did, Brumby fired her.

Brumby, who headed the counsel’s office from 1978 until he retired in August, also testified that he was concerned that “some members of the Legislature would view that taking place within our office as perhaps immoral, perhaps unnatural and perhaps, if you will, liberal or ultra-liberal.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution

During Thursday’s oral arguments, the judges seized on Brumby’s pretrial testimony, citing a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found it is not just illegal to discriminate against employees because of their sex, but that it is also illegal to discriminate against those who don’t conform to the stereotypes associated with their biological sex.

Gregory Nevins of the Lambda Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who is representing Glenn, said he was confident the law was on his client’s side.

“Vandy Beth was fired because her boss didn’t like who she is, and that kind of treatment is discriminatory and illegal,” Nevins said. “It is unfair and illegal to fire a transgender employee because she does not conform to your sexist stereotypes of how a woman should be.”

The 11th Circuit panel is considering the state’s appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Story, who found Glenn was the victim of sex discrimination.

Story ordered Glenn returned to her job and for the state to no longer discriminate against her after she returns, but that decision was stayed pending the outcome of the appeal, according to Nevins.

A decision by the 11th Circuit is expected within a few months.

Deval Patrick

The Transgender Equal Rights Bill passed in the Massachusetts House on Nov. 15 by a vote of 95-58 vote, and cleared the state’s Senate the following morning when Senators approved the measure on a voice vote and with no opposition.

The approved version of the bill adds “gender identity” to employment, education, housing, and credit non-discrimination law, as well as to hate crimes law. It did not address public accommodations, however.

Patrick said he signed the bill as a matter of “conscience” even though lawmakers had stripped a provision that would have required all “sex-segregated facilities” to grant admission to people based on their gender identity, rather than their biological gender.

The provision, viewed as a key component by advocates of the legislation, was removed to build consensus among lawmakers.

“It gave me pause, and it gave the advocates pause, and it gave transgender people pause,” Patrick said in an interview inside his State House office. “There’s a lot of good in this bill, and after consulting with them and my team and my own conscience, I wanted to sign this bill. And then, we’ll come back around to public accommodations.”

The Patriot Leader

The Governor said he did not want to risk sending the bill back to lawmakers with an amendment, particularly as they embark on a seven-week recess.

Patrick has been a vocal proponent of transgender rights. In February, he signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in state employment, a directive which reaches 43,500 executive branch employees and 13,500 state contractors.

“Gov. Patrick was a staunch advocate of the Transgender Equal Rights Bill from the earliest days of his administration,” said Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), in a statement.

“We are so grateful for his leadership in getting this bill passed and for his unwavering commitment to ensuring that all residents of the Commonwealth, including transgender people, are treated with dignity and respect under the laws of our state,” Scott said.

When the bill takes effect on July 1, 2012, Massachusetts will become the 16th state in the nation, along with Washington, D.C., to offer vital protections against discrimination to its transgender residents.

Today is a day when all decent persons across the face of the planet should take a moment to pause and reflect on the terrible loss of promising lives rendered incomplete by a noxious and unjust pathology of lies, misconceptions and outright bigotry.

Today, Nov. 20, marks the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual event to recognize the many people who are murdered because of their gender identity or expression.

As recently as a few days ago in Los Angeles, yet again acts of violence were directed at a transgendered person with the poor woman being shot dead in the streets of Hollywood. I could pause here and do a numbingly long roll call of the deceased, but instead I will honor them by calling on people to instead focus on stopping the violence.

In their new book, The Lives of Transgender People, authors Genny Beemyn and Sue Rankin found that acts of anti-transgender bias are commonplace and affect all gender nonconforming people, both directly and indirectly.

"Among the nearly 3,500 transgender individuals in the United States we surveyed, more than one fourth had experienced harassment or violence within the previous year; those most likely to be victimized were transgender people of color and those whose transgender identity was more visible.

"Appallingly, a majority of the people in our study indicated that they feared being injured or killed for being transmasculine, transfeminine, or gender-nonconforming."

Violence, however, is merely the most extreme manifestation of how society expresses contempt toward individuals who do not conform to gender expectations. And these views pervade our lives and continue to harm transgender people, even in subtler forms.

This bears repeating: "Violence, however, is merely the most extreme manifestation of how society expresses contempt [...]"

Contempt? I still have trouble wrapping my head around that line of reasoning, these are human beings not some silly representation of evil incarnate.

Yet I am only too keenly aware that certain influences that are brought to bear on societal viewpoints are oft times most influenced by religious bigotry and misconceptions. When racism or xenophobia is added to the already volatile mixture then murder is a sadly predictable outcome.

I have dear friends who are transgendered and without exception, they all have told me that they instinctively knew that their gender identities and their "human shells" didn't match from early ages.

That is rather simple to understand at least from my perspective as a human being, journalist, and student of humanity. Yet, I continue to hear from so-called christian leadership in various organs of that vast corporate christian network that transgendered people are defective, broken, disordered, and worse- mentally ill.

Sometimes, these awful labels end up being utilized by the very persons themselves by way of explanation or justification as if being a transgendered human was an affliction or a disease.

In a recent New York Times interview, one prominent transgendered man said, “There’s a gender in your brain and a gender in your body. For 99 percent of people, those things are in alignment. For transgender people, they’re mismatched. That’s all it is. It’s not complicated, it’s not a neurosis. It’s a mix-up. It’s a BIRTH DEFECT, like a cleft palate.”

Note the emphasis on birth defect please. A Trans activist took great offense at the phrase birth defect firing back with; "I do not have a birth defect. If you feel like you have a birth defect, fine. That’s how you feel. Go feel that. Do not put it onto me. Do not define me that way, and do not define other trans people that way unless they claim that label."

According to authors Genny Beemyn and Sue Rankin,the cruelest form of discrimination young transgender people face is within their homes.

"Our research suggests that transgender people recognize themselves as being different from the gender assigned to them at birth when they are, on average, 5 years old. But most, including almost all the male-bodied children who recognized themselves to be girls, could not act on that understanding.

"If they dared reveal their feelings to their families, they were often forcefully told that they were their birth gender and punished for their gender-transgressive behavior. The families that were supportive frequently found that administrators at their child's school knew little about transgender issues and were hostile toward the gender transition of a student."

With the Internet providing ready access to information and resources, more and more children are realizing that they are transgender at a young age and seeking to transition before they go through the "wrong" puberty -- but those who do often face harsh reactions from other family members, teachers, and parents.

The ultimate manifestation of discrimination is of course simply murder or the horrific beating of a transgendered person which in many cases leaves a permanent disfigurement if not physically then spiritually.

Beemyn and Rankin ask the obvious, "How, then, do we prevent these children from being rejected? How do we end the climate of hatred and fear that has claimed the lives of many transgender people?"

"We believe that K-12 schools and colleges must take the lead in recognizing and educating about gender diversity. They must implement nondiscrimination policies inclusive of gender identity and expression to protect transgender youth, and they must educate students about the full richness and diversity of gender.

"For if we are to no longer need the Day of Remembrance in the future, society has to move beyond the binary of two unchanging genders -- and if we teach our children well, they can be the ones who will bring about that day.

I agree with Beemyn and Rankin's assessment without reservation.

Before the European settlers invaded the vast open spaces of North America, importing their toxic brand of Christianity that, quite literally, destroyed numerous native Indian cultures, the tribes of those first nations recognized the value of those members that they referred to as "two spirits."

It is sad that even today the legacy of the bias of their so-called religious leadership sees only their brand of peculiar theology as the "correct" way for society to live.

This toxic imperative makes life a misery for the transgender community and in particular, those who are also of a minority in the population. The first nations valued this diversity -- those Europeans invaders and their descendants, and a majority of today's societies, do not.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on Friday issued this statement, marking today's 2011 Transgender Day of Remembrance, and memorializing transgender Americans who have lost their lives as a result of violence.

Hilda Solis

"I am proud to stand and be counted as an ally to the transgender community and to every person and family impacted by anti-transgender violence.

"What began as an online project in 1999 to memorialize the murder of a transgender person will this year include hundreds of vigils and events throughout the country and around the world.

"I hope that this year's commemoration will serve as an opportunity to shine a brighter light on both progress made and the challenges ahead.

"The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality recently joined me at the U.S. Department of Labor to present a comprehensive study on the experiences of transgender people in America. More than 90 percent of transgender people experience harassment and mistreatment in the workplace, with nearly half being fired or denied a promotion. This is unacceptable.

"And while my department focuses on the nation's workforce, I am equally troubled by the experiences of transgender people in their homes and in our schools and hospitals that promise to shelter, educate and heal.

"This administration has taken specific steps to protect our transgender citizens. In 2009, the president signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, expanding the 1969 United States federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim's gender identity. The following year, our federal government updated its nondiscrimination policy on USA Jobs to explicitly include protection on the basis of gender identity.

"I am proud to say that the Department of Labor this year joined other executive branch agencies in updating its policy on equal employment opportunity and its policy on harassing conduct in the workplace to specifically prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity. And I am also proud that transgender individuals serve openly at the U.S. Department of Labor.

"To address the pervasive issue of bullying among our youth, including those targeted due to their gender identity or expression, the administration hosted the first White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, and the president and many of us in the cabinet recorded "It Gets Better" videos to assure our youth that they are not alone.

"On this day of remembrance, as we pause to reflect on the lives that have been lost, we renew our commitment to an America that celebrates and values every person."