Groups Spar Over Massachusetts Transgender 'Bathroom Bill'
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513100,00.html (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513100,00.html)
BOSTON — For Ethan St. Pierre, allowing someone who is biologically female — but self-identifies as male — to use the men's bathroom is a no-brainer.
"Look at me," said St. Pierre, who was born a woman but is now a transgender man with a beard and short hair.
"I don't want to get hurt by some woman who thinks I'm in the ladies room for the wrong reasons. I mean, clearly I don't belong there."
St. Pierre, of Haverhill, was one of hundreds of advocates at a Tuesday lobby, supporting a bill that would add "gender identity and expression" to Massachusetts's discrimination and hate crimes laws. Having this legislation would have protected St. Pierre from being fired in 2003 from his job as a security supervisor because he became a man, he said.
But opponents of the measure have deemed it "a bathroom bill," saying it would lead to a breakdown in privacy and public safety in rest rooms, locker rooms, showers and other single-sex facilities.