Gender Identity Bill Fails in MD State Senate Committee
Once again our courageous leaders in Annapolis have failed to enact a bill to prevent gender-identity discrimination. SB 449, the Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2013, died in the state Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee yesterday.
The Washington Blade:
Disappointing that three Democrats joined Republicans in opposing this bill. It is a strange pattern to see in this bluest of blue states, but this is nothing new.
The Washington Blade:
The 6-5 vote in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee came slightly more than two weeks after it held a hearing on Senate Bill 449 — the Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2013 — that state Sens. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) and Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County) introduced.You might remember that last year a similar bill failed to reach a vote when Democrat Thomas “Mike” Miller, the Maryland Senate president, said he only had time for "one gay bill."
Raskin along with state Sens. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery County,) Lisa Gladden (D-Baltimore City,) Jennie Forehand (D-Montgomery County) and Robert Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) voted for SB 449. Senators Norman Stone (D-Baltimore County,) C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s County,) Nancy Jacobs (R-Cecil and Harford Counties,) James Brochin (D-Baltimore County,) Christopher Shank (R-Washington County) and Joseph Getty (R-Baltimore and Carroll Counties) opposed it.
“Despite months of hard work by our broad coalition of supporters, key committee members were unwilling to advance the promise of equality under the law to the transgender community,” Madaleno said in an e-mail he sent to his constituents after the vote. “A majority of committee members were unwilling to pass a bill that prohibited discrimination by restaurants, theaters, hotels, shopping centers and other places of public accommodations. Their lack of understanding and empathy for their fellow Marylanders is appalling.” Md. Senate committee kills transgender rights bill
Dana Beyer, executive director of Gender Rights Maryland, also expressed outrage.I'm sure Peter Sprigg is very concerned about making the lives of transgender people better.
“Bigotry won the day, and I say that because the sponsor bent over backward to assuage the concerns of his Democratic colleagues,” she told the Washington Blade. “None of it was good enough, nor did they then offer any solution themselves other than to strip out public accommodations protections entirely.”
“It is terribly disappointing the committee failed to stand up for fairness and protect transgender Marylanders,” Equality Maryland Executive Director Carrie Evans added.
Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council, and other SB 449 opponents testified against the measure during the Feb. 26 committee hearing.
“This bill will force the state and private actors — employers, landlords and others who provide public services — to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality,” Sprigg said. “Not only will it not makes their lives better, but it will prevent them from getting the very help they do need to make their lives better.”
Disappointing that three Democrats joined Republicans in opposing this bill. It is a strange pattern to see in this bluest of blue states, but this is nothing new.
posted by JimK at 8:51 AM
16 Comments:
Montgomery, Howard and Baltimore Counties already ban discrimination against our transgender brothers and sisters. It may take a while to educate some Maryland voters (not Sprigg though, he remains ignorant by choice), but with 23 sponsors of this now defeated legislation, it won't be long until the rest of the great state of Maryland will follow those counties' leads.
Moments ago Maryland became the 18th state to repeal the death penalty.
Would you support a bill that strips out public accommodation?
What is meant by education?
good to see the esteemed and recognized public servant still winning the fight against anti-family forces and holding off the vicious Dana Beyer
the truth is, unnecessary law is always bad law that reduces freedom bit by bit
transgenders have available them all the same public facilities everyone else has
there's no point in making laws that will just encourage certain elements to make crap up
The bill was only one, still unenlightened senator short of being sent to the floor and likely passage. Times change, people change, membership on the SJP Committee changes. Eventually, common decency will prevail.
Anon deluded:
“good to see the esteemed and recognized public servant still winning the fight against anti-family forces and holding off the vicious Dana Beyer”
Peter Sprigg and his tax-free Christian propaganda machine are using a fear mongering tactic that goes back centuries in the Christian faith. The “bathroom rapist” and “child molester” memes that the “family values” organizations sell, (including the CRG) is nothing less than the watered down, modern day, more politically correct version of the “blood libel.” Christians can no longer just accuse people of sacrificing children to cultivate fear, mistrust, and anger towards the “unclean” people they don’t like anymore. Secular governments have wrested too much power away from the churches, and now you usually have to provide actual proof of such heinous crimes before you can execute someone for them. So much for the good old days.
That doesn’t stop them from persecuting innocent people in the court of public opinion though, and trying to whip up as much anti-gay or anti-trans sentiment as they can. It’s the kind of behavior we’ve come to expect from Christians. Harold Camping made hundreds of millions of dollars predicting the end of the world, much of it “assured” by the “ultimate” signs of gay people being accepted in society. And since he had a church, all that cash was tax exempt. It’s a nice lucrative racket to be in; I’ve thought about trying it out myself at times just for the money. Problem is though I have a conscience.
There will come a day though when the people buying the crap the Peter, Ruth, the “Family Research Council,” and the National Organization for “Marriage” is such a small minority that these peddlers will have to figure how to get a real job.
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
Couple of typos in my last paragraph... this should clear things up:
There will come a day though when the people buying the crap that Peter, Ruth, the “Family Research Council,” and the National Organization for “Marriage” sell is such a small minority that these peddlers will have to figure how to get a real job.
what Peter Spriggs, esteemed public servant said:
“This bill will force the state and private actors — employers, landlords and others who provide public services — to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality,” Sprigg said. “Not only will it not makes their lives better, but it will prevent them from getting the very help they do need to make their lives better.”
what Svelte, TTF's resident Batman villain said:
"Peter Sprigg and his tax-free Christian propaganda machine are using a fear mongering tactic that goes back centuries in the Christian faith. The “bathroom rapist” and “child molester” memes that the “family values” organizations sell, (including the CRG) is nothing less than the watered down, modern day, more politically correct version of the “blood libel.” Christians can no longer just accuse people of sacrificing children to cultivate fear, mistrust, and anger towards the “unclean” people they don’t like anymore."
it's clear who's making crap up and that Svelte thinks anyone who doesn't believe "her" is the equivalent of a Nazi
there is no pervasive denial of access to restaurants, theaters, hotels, shopping centers and other places of public accommodations for those who imagine themselves to be a gender they aren't
if an isolated incident occurs, go to another restaurant
the magic of capitalism is that everone's buck is the same and few businesses will turn down your money because you're weird
anyone tells you otherwise, they're making crap up
unnecessary laws infringe freedom unnecessarily
speaking of making crap up, George Will today addresses the topic that makes this site so toxic to the dwindling number who read it, the politicization of science by the lunatic fringe left
apparently, Daniel Patrick Moybnihan, the last sane Democrat, recognized this phenomena years ago:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-the-shaky-science-behind-same-sex-marriage/2013/03/15/ccdbe82a-8cc9-11e2-9f54-f3fdd70acad2_story.html
what Peter Spriggs, said:
“This bill will force the state and private actors — employers, landlords and others who provide public services — to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality,” Sprigg said. “Not only will it not makes their lives better, but it will prevent them from getting the very help they do need to make their lives better.”
I give credit to Peter for being far more articulate than most of the CRG folks I’ve met. That is part of what makes him more dangerous to people like me. As usual though, he is utterly and completely wrong. There is no one more painfully cognizant of the surgically reconstructed nature of my anatomy than I am. There is no delusion here. I am quite aware that there are many people who don’t believe I pass some sort of test for being a “woman.” There is no “delusion” that anyone needs to “legally affirm” for me or any of my trans friends. We are quite aware that we don’t fit into people’s neat little gender boxes. Some of us are reminded and harassed about it every single day of our lives. If we were delusional it would make the harassment far more bearable – we could imagine things like “they just hatin’ ‘cause they know I’m gorgeous!” But that doesn’t happen.
On a related note, I’ve never forced anyone to affirm my gender or any “delusion” I might have. If you believe that I have or do, that’s YOUR delusion, not mine.
I’m sure Peter is aware that transition is the prescribed treatment for people suffering from Gender Dysphoria. I sought out, paid for (out of my own pocket) and received treatment for this condition. This is essentially the same treatment regimen that has been supplied since the 1950’s. It has been around unchanged so long because it is so helpful and effective. The decade of experience doctors have gained with this regimen over the past 6 decades has given them the confidence to start the social portion of the treat program with children who obviously show the diagnostic signs. This treatment program is the “very help they need to make their lives better,” as Peter would say. Unfortunately his theology degree seems to get in the way of what the last 60 years of science has shown us. We’ve gotten the help Peter; it’s time to stop claiming that we’re delusional. That doesn’t help at all.
Anon complained:
it's clear who's making crap up and that Svelte thinks anyone who doesn't believe "her" is the equivalent of a Nazi
Read my post more carefully Anon. I accused Peter and his ilk of doing the same things that Christians did centuries ago, not Nazis. I didn’t even mention Germans. Although perhaps I shouldn’t blame you entirely for the confusion. After all, in the 16th century Pope Paul IV forced Jews to wear yellow hats (for the men) or kerchiefs (for the women) and locked them in a ghetto. The Catholic church was also known for forcing Jews to attend conversion classes or get out of the country. The blood liable was a useful tactic for instigating fear and anger towards the Jews and made it far easier to implement their lock up, conversion, and expulsion policies.
The Nazis on the other hand forced the Jews to wear yellow STARS, locked them up in ghettos, forced them to work to death, or just killed them. You see, it’s COMPLETELY different! They were masters of using propaganda to generate animosity towards the Jews though. The Christians however, did this centuries before the Nazis. There’s no need to invoke the Nazis here, especially when there are papal bulls recording the edicts.
I didn’t imply that these folks were being Nazis at all, merely that there behavior has ample precedent in Christian history. It’s pretty well documented. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
“there is no pervasive denial of access to restaurants, theaters, hotels, shopping centers and other places of public accommodations for those who imagine themselves to be a gender they aren't”
There’s no requirement for pervasiveness in our anti-discrimination laws. Restaurants typically don’t kick out people for being Jews or Christians these days, but we still have laws on our books protecting those religious groups from such anti-social behavior. It keeps our society running far more smoothly than the countries that don’t have those kinds of laws.
“the magic of capitalism is that everone's buck is the same and few businesses will turn down your money because you're weird”
The problem is that a number of my young trans friends can’t get jobs or find a place to live simply because they’re trans. If they could get a job, then they’d have money to go to the restaurant and see if they got served or not.
The magic of American anti-discrimination laws is that they are slowly moving us more towards a meritocracy, and away from a stagnant philosophy dominated by religious fears and taboos.
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C., says to the sounds of laughter from the congregation that he's figured "a way out." He suggests building a large fence -- 150 or 100 miles long -- and putting all the gays and lesbians inside it.
"And have that fence electrified 'til they can't get out," he says. "Feed 'em. And you know what, in a few years, they'll die out. Do you know why? They can't reproduce."
There’s a video of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d446-swiN3A
Apparently when it comes to homosexuality, he’s “agin it,”and you should be too.
And here’s Peter Sprigg explaining that “I would much prefer to EXPORT homosexuals FROM the United States than to IMPORT them INTO the United States”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6JuKnXJGTc
Expelling people you don’t like from the country? Walling them off in a prison camp?
The resemblances to the Christian church of yore are uncanny.
One has to wonder exactly where in the Christian curriculum these types of anti-social philosophies were taught. Sitting here in the 21st century it should be painfully obvious the kinds of damage this kind of marginalization can do to a minority. We should know by now not to kindle this fire. Claiming that there is some kind of “moral” reason for doing this requires completely ignoring centuries of history when you consider how bad the outcomes were.
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
Svelte, TTF's resident Batman villain, has posted three progressively shrill rants
they may indicate some mental imbalance
don't they have meds for that?
let's back up:
Peter Spriggs, an immensely distinguishe and recognized public servant and friend of the county's students, is detested by TTFers, who are jealous because e's so much smarter than them.
All he said was this:
“This bill will force the state and private actors — employers, landlords and others who provide public services — to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality,” Sprigg said. “Not only will it not makes their lives better, but it will prevent them from getting the very help they do need to make their lives better.”
doesn't sound deserving of the hyperbole Svelte is engaging
"There’s no requirement for pervasiveness in our anti-discrimination laws."
actually, there is, Svelte
if there is not evidence of pervasiveness, then it is unjust and unequal protection under the law because there are a million little petty injustices we all face every day
if they intervened in all injustice, there would be no rest from their everspying eyes
so why should the government only step in to intervene for sexual oddballs?
Anon, I am not much for making rules for the comments section, but as Royal Benign Dictator of this blog I am going to issue an edict.
We have some transgender readers who comment here, and transgender people are sometimes referred to in the blog post. We do not have to agree about everything here but we can show respect. If you address someone or refer to them by the name they used before their transition, or if you refer to them with the wrong gender pronouns or put references to their sex in quotes, or otherwise mock their gender identity, I will delete your comment. And if it keeps happening I will ban you permanently. In fact, if I think you are being disrespectful beyond what I arbitrarily decide is appropriate I will delete your comments. This policy was established a long time ago.
JimK
"Have a nice day,"
yeah, go eat a nice poison ivy salad!
Anon wondered:
“Svelte, TTF's resident Batman villain, has posted three progressively shrill rants
they may indicate some mental imbalance
don't they have meds for that?”
I haven’t watched the Batman movies since the one with Heath Ledger. I nearly walked out of that one because the violence was too realistic. I can handle comic book violence, the jail room scene in that one nearly made me lose my cookies. If I hadn’t been there with family and friends, I just would have left.
I seem to recall that Batman was known for kicking butts of the misanthropic sociopath crowd. +6 points for Appropriate Metaphor.
“Peter Spriggs, (sic) an immensely distinguishe (sic) and recognized public servant and friend of the county's students, is detested by TTFers, who are jealous because e's (sic) so much smarter than them.
All he said was this:”
“This bill will force the state and private actors — employers, landlords and others who provide public services — to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality,” Sprigg said. “Not only will it not makes their lives better, but it will prevent them from getting the very help they do need to make their lives better.”
I am well aware of what he said – that is a matter of history now.
Looking at Peter’s bio, it’s apparent that he’s been an ordained Baptist minister, has a theology degree, a political science degree, an economics degree, and 10 years of acting experience in an international Christian drama ministry.
He has nothing even close to a medical degree, much less one is psychology. His statement completely disregards that simple fact that anyone who seeks surgical reassignment has to be examined by a least two different experts in the field (with actual degrees) and have their sanity documented in writing before a surgeon will see them.
This requirement has been in place for decades and is not secret knowledge. Anyone who can google can find this information with even a cursory examination of the topic. I suspect Peter is even aware of these facts but chooses to ignore them. Therefore his factually unsupported statement is not borne from his knowledge or any intelligence you claim, but is a byproduct of his theology, political science, and Christian drama skills.
“doesn't sound deserving of the hyperbole Svelte is engaging”
The items I mentioned were pulled from history, they are not hyperbole. You may have been confused because the words sound similar.
“they may indicate some mental imbalance
don't they have meds for that?”
And there you go reiterating Peter’s false presumption. If I did indeed suffer from some sort of mental imbalance it would have been easy for you (who presumably suffers no imbalance) to offer a counterpoint example to show why the parallels I drew to history were inaccurate. But lacking a cogent and coherent response you instead repeated Peter’s falsehood and impugned my character, intelligence, and sanity. -12 points for avoiding the issue.
“if there is not evidence of pervasiveness, then it is unjust and unequal protection under the law because there are a million little petty injustices we all face every day”
You seem to think that because you don’t hear incidents of trans people being discriminated against very often, or that there aren’t a lot of trans people to harass, that the issue isn’t “pervasive” and that there is no need for the anti-discrimination laws. This is not the meaning of “pervasive” that the law requires. There is no requirement that we see this kind discrimination on a “frequent” or “daily” basis to consider engage the law. When is the last time you heard of a religious person being refused service at a restaurant? It certainly doesn’t seem “pervasive,” yet we still have plenty of laws keeping that from happening.
The pervasiveness of anti-discrimination laws refers to how frequently the injustice happens to the minority class, and how difficult it makes it for them to function in our society. When a professor with 5 degrees is fired for a job because they found out she’s trans, and then she spends 2 years interviewing at universities all throughout the Northeast and Midwest, only to be denied because of her medical history, that discrimination is pervasive. (That is the true story of one of my friends.) When a highly qualified chef in MoCo spends several years putting in her resume at literally HUNDREDS of locations in the mid-Atlantic region and fails because of her transness, that is pervasive. Meeting the “pervasive” requirement of anti-discrimination laws is easy for trans people to do as a group. What you think of as “pervasive” isn’t a requirement.
“so why should the government only step in to intervene for sexual oddballs?”
Read the codes Anon, it also steps in for religious, political, and ethnic oddballs as well. You’re covered by at least two of those.
“yeah, go eat a nice poison ivy salad!”
I love it when you let your sadistic side out. I can really feel that Christian love coming right through my screen then.
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
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