Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: Other Legislation Around The Country

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Other Legislation Around The Country

Connecticut is not the only state around the country to be working to pass anti-discrimination laws. Our neighbors to the north are also trying to pass gender inclusive anti-discrimination bills and one is trying to hanging on to the protection that they already have.

In Maine there is a bill that will roll back some of the protections that they have, the bill LD 1046 “An Act to Amend the Application of the Maine Human Rights Act Regarding Public Accommodations” was introduced by Rep. Ken Fredette (R) that will force people to use the restrooms of their biological gender. The bill is backed by Maine Family Policy Council, or Christian Civic League. Their version of the Judiciary Committee said that the bill should not be passed on, EQME press release said,

Transgender Advocates Laud Judiciary Committee Vote Against LD 1046
Equality Maine
May 16, 2011

Augusta, Maine – On May 13, in a bipartisan vote of 8 -5 the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary recommended that LD 1046, “An Act to Amend the Application of the Maine Human Rights Act Regarding Public Accommodations” ought not to pass. The bill would repeal part of the Maine Human Rights Act to take away existing protections for transgender people when accessing appropriate public restrooms.

In Massachusetts next Wednesday there will be a hearing on their gender identity anti-discrimination bill, H00502 An Act Relative To Transgender Equal Rights, once again they have the votes to pass the bill, but the law makers do not have the will to push the bill forward. So who are opposing to the bill? The Massachusetts Family Institute.

In Nevada, this week the governor signed three bills that made Nevada the 14th state to provide protect trans-people in employment, housing and public accommodation. They did it the hard way, passing three separate bills.

I want you to notice something, in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts the opposition all call themselves “Family”, I don’t know about you, but I don’t call teaching hate and intolerance a family value.

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Quotes

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
Martin Luther King Jr.

No one is born hating another person… People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist
James Baldwin

There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence.
Newton Lee

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.
Albert Einstein

"The point is that there are always obstacles, whether they seem insurmountable or merely bothersome. The question is not how difficult the path, but whether in your heart, you wish to undertake the journey."
Zandru's Forge

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gandhi

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught
You've got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who's eyes are oddly made
And people who's skin is a different shade

South Pacific
Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rogers

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Other Legislation Around The Country

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