The Maryland House of Delegates is currently
considering HB 235, the Gender Identity Anti-discrimination Bill. The
bill is controversial, even among the transgender community, because
in its current form it only provides protection from
employment and housing discrimination. The bill specifically leaves
out “public accommodations” language, implicitly keeping the door
open for discrimination in other areas.
Access to public restrooms, homeless shelters
and other essential public services could still be denied or
restricted under HB 235 unless amendments are added to ensure public
accommodation protection. Politicians are refusing to add amendments
despite the fact that more and more advocates from the transgender
community are withdrawing their support for the bill because it falls
short of the protection that people of any orientation deserve.
On March 15, members and allies of Trans Maryland,
an advocacy group for transgender and transsexual Marylanders, held
an educational rally in front of the Supreme Court in Washington,
D.C., to demand that public accommodations language be reinstated
into the bill.
Equality for the transgender community in all
areas of society is an important fight in Maryland and throughout the
country and can be a matter of life and death.
Advocates for public accommodation rights often recall the sad story
of Tyra Hunter, who was denied medical services by emergency
responders and hospital staff after a traffic accident just over the
Maryland border in Washington, D.C.
As Tyra lay unconscious in the street, D.C. firefighters
made jokes about her being transgendered and delayed care to her for
several minutes while they laughed. An emergency room doctor also
refused to treat Tyra, and she died of her injuries needlessly.
Transgendered people also continuously face
oppression that is often violent. Recently in Baltimore, Tyra Trent,
a 25-year-old transgendered woman was found
strangled and left in a vacant building. A public vigil was held for
her outside the statehouse where HB 235 is scheduled to be debated.
Currently in the U.S., there are no federal or state
laws protecting the rights of transgendered people, of whom 20
percent have lost jobs because of their identity, while about 12
percent are homeless.
Politicians represent and cower before
the reactionary forces of the ruling class, whose aim it is to
continuously use discrimination and bigotry to isolate and oppress
segments of the working class. The right to marry, the right to
public services and the right to live free of intimidation and
violence are all fundamental to a free and fair society. These rights
will never be fully realized under the current political and economic
systems that discriminate against and oppress all but the privileged
few. Along with the fight for laws to ensure equal rights for all,
the fight for a new revolutionary system that puts people first must
continue.
