It took nearly six years, but the Massachusetts State Legislature on Nov. 16, 2011, passed a transgender civil rights bill long supported by many Episcopalians in the Diocese of Massachusetts, extending protections against housing, employment, education and credit discrimination already in place for other minority groups.
"Persistence, like patience, can be a virtue and that's certainly been the case with the transgender rights bill that our Legislature finally passed. I know it is not a perfect bill, but everyone who worked so long to achieve this important step should know that, by changing systems, you are being healers in the world, just as Jesus was," the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, said in a statement after the bill's passage. He has been an active supporter of the bill together with other Episcopalians, including the Diocesan Convention, which called in 2008 for the addition of gender identification to the state's hate crimes law.
"Now is the time to carry civil liberty for all people another step forward," Shaw said in a Nov. 15 statement (full text below) in support of the bill that now goes to Governor Patrick for signing.
Statement by The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE,
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
Nov. 15, 2011
Hopeful that after six years the transgender equal rights bill will come to the Massachusetts Legislature for a vote this week, I continue to urge lawmakers to support it. Now is the time to carry civil liberty for all people another step forward by safeguarding the equality and honoring the human dignity of transgender people. Passing the bill this week will serve as a powerful sign of hope, particularly as Transgender Day of Remembrance is being observed at our Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston this Sunday. I pray that Massachusetts will open this new door this week so that we might step through it together toward social justice for all.