Massachusetts State Rep. Carl Sciortino (LA ’00) is working to add gender identity to the state constitution’s anti−discrimination statute in the hopes of strengthening legal protection for transgender rights.
The bill, which Sciortino (D−Medford, Somerville) is co−sponsoring in the legislature, would include “gender identity and expression” in the statute. Its passage would make Massachusetts one of 14 states to explicitly protect transgender persons from discrimination.
It would also amend the state’s hate crime laws accordingly to equate the punishment for gender−based crime to that for racially or ethnically motivated crimes.