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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, June 13, 2008
A
campaign
to
preserve
Mont-gomery
County’s
transgender
rights
law
has
begun
with
backing
from
two
national
gay
rights
groups.
Basic
Rights
Montgomery
aims
to
preserve
the
law
that
voters
will
either
approve
or
reject
in
November.
The
campaign
has
drawn
$20,000
donations
each
from
the
Human
Rights
Campaign
and
the
National
Gay
&
Lesbian
Task
Force.
“I
think
there’s
a
universal
recognition
that
what’s
happening
in
Montgomery
County
is
of
national
importance,”
said
Dan
Furmansky,
a
campaign
leader
and
Equality
Maryland’s
executive
director.
“This
is
potentially
the
first
time
a
standalone
transgender
civil
rights
law
would
have
gone
to
the
ballot
and
there’s
no
option
other
than
for
us
to
preserve
this
law.”
Passed
unanimously
by
Montgomery
County
Council
members
last
year,
the
law
bars
“discrimination
in
housing,
employment,
public
accommodations,
cable
television
service
and
taxicab
service
on
the
basis
of
gender
identity.”
It
was
set
to
go
into
effect
four
months
ago,
but
was
suspended
after
opponents
collected
more
than
32,000
signatures
to
force
a
referendum.
That
effort
was
led
by
Citizens
for
a
Responsible
Government.
Equality
Maryland
and
Lambda
Legal
are
fighting
in
court
to
derail
the
referendum.
A
court
hearing
to
discuss
the
validity
of
collected
signatures,
set
for
this
week,
did
not
conclude
before
Blade
deadline.
Should
the
courthouse
battle
fail,
Furmansky
said,
Basic
Rights
Montgomery
would
take
the
case
directly
to
voters.
“We
certainly
recognize
the
need
to
get
our
efforts
underway
sooner
rather
than
later,”
he
said,
“and
that’s
why
we’re
raising
money
for
the
campaign.”
But
the
effort,
which
Furmansky
said
remains
in
its
“infancy
stages”
while
the
steering
committee
searches
for
a
campaign
manager,
could
have
a
costly
price
tag.
“Certainly,
we
expect
it
will
be
in
the
hundreds
of
thousands,”
he
said.
“It’s
going
to
require
a
lot
of
voter
engagements.”
An
estimated
930,800
people
live
in
Montgomery
County,
according
to
the
U.S.
Census
Bureau.
That’s
more
people
than
live
in
Alaska,
Wyoming
or
South
Dakota.
Dan
Hawes,
the
Task
Force’s
director
of
organizing
and
training,
said
the
campaign
will
target
the
“typically
20
to
30
percent”
of
voters
who
are
undecided.
“Our
job
really
is
to
figure
out
who
are
the
voters
we
need
to
focus
on
in
Montgomery
County,”
he
said,
“and
make
sure
those
voters
are
with
us.”
Noble
said
because
the
vote
represents
“the
first-ever
referenda
that
is
singling
out
transgender
people,”
it’s
crucial
that
the
county
votes
to
support
the
law.
“If
we
can
defeat
this
soundly
here,”
he
said,
“we
can
hopefully
put
a
nail
in
the
coffin
of
similar
petitions
springing
up
elsewhere
in
the
country.”
The
efforts
to
protect
Montgomery
County’s
ordinance
come
after
Maryland
legislators
failed
to
enact
proposals
this
year
for
a
similar
law
statewide.
Measures
to
bar
discrimination
in
housing,
employment
and
public
accommodations
based
on
gender
identity
were
introduced
by
lawmakers,
but
made
little
progress
and
died
in
committee
when
the
General
Assembly
adjourned.
Michelle
Turner,
a
Citizens
for
a
Responsible
Government
spokesperson,
said
that
failing
could
give
Montgomery
County
voters
pause.
“When
people
see
it’s
not
passing
at
the
state
level,”
she
said,
“it
does
give
them
pause
at
the
local
level.”
But
supporters
said
the
Mont-gomery
County
ordinance
is
needed
and
does
not
enact
any
drastic
changes.
“I
heard
from
many
people
who
signed
the
petition
—
or
were
harassed
to
sign
the
petition
—
that
it
creates
unisex
bathrooms
around
the
county,”
Furmansky
said,
“or
simply
people
talked
about
how
any
man
would
be
able
to
go
into
a
women’s
bathroom
or
women’s
locker
room.”
He
said
neither
scenario
is
true
and,
“the
primary
aim
of
the
campaign
will
be
educating
people
about
the
law
and
what
it
does
and
what
it
does
not
do.”
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