Sep 26, 2008  |  By: AMY CAVANAUGH  | COMMENTS     

A law extending new rights to Montgomery County’s transgender residents and workers is winning early praise from activists and others who fought to secure it.

Maryanne Arnow of Equality Maryland said the law, which went into effect earlier this month, “adds a layer of comfort to what is often an overwhelmingly difficult process, since transitioning is a public process because of the clinical standards that one has to adhere to.

“It gives me a great sense of security knowing that I have the full force of the law behind me, should any discriminatory situation occur at work or in public places.”

Celeste Hall, a transgender woman who said she faced prejudice when she sought work in Montgomery County, agreed.

“Hopefully, if I apply for a job in Montgomery County again,” she said, “I won’t have managers telling me, ‘We’d like to hire you, but worry about how other employees will react to you.’”

The Maryland Court of Appeals decided Sept. 9 that the law, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and other areas based on gender identity, would not require public ratification.

The victory came nearly one year after the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed the U.S. House of Representatives without transgender protections. The removal of the trans provision angered many activists, who criticized HRC for refusing to oppose the gay-only version of the bill.
Jim Kennedy of Teach the Facts, a group that promotes fact-based education in Montgomery County schools, said HRC fiercely defended the local trans rights measure.

“The HRC, who did not really support the transgender part of ENDA, really got involved in the Montgomery County battle, and contributed a lot of money and resources,” said Kennedy. “So that is a shift, and it’s important for them to do that.”

Jeremy Pittman, HRC’s national deputy field director, said that HRC did not see the Montgomery County transgender legislation as a way to make amends for ENDA.

“This is exactly the same kind of work we’ve done in supporting state level initiatives for providing LGBT equality for years, and we would have given the same level of support regardless of what happened last year with the ENDA battle,” he said.

Pittman said HRC provided $5,000 to help fund the case that went to the Maryland Court of Appeals and $20,000 to help start Basic Rights Montgomery, a coalition formed to support the trans rights measure.

Undoing the damage

Although some anger remains over ENDA, activists said they’re seeing a shift in how trans rights are viewed within the gay civil rights movement.

“The Montgomery County law shows continued progress in support of transgender rights,” said Donna Cartwright, communications director of Pride at Work, an AFL-CIO constituency group.
“I think there’s always been a great deal of collaboration between gay and transgender groups, but it’s heartening that this cooperation and solidarity continues.”

Arnow said that the Mont-gomery County legislation undoes some of the damage caused by last
year’s ENDA feud.

“Even though there is no blanket, federal non-discrimination act that protects transgender people, and in Maryland there’s no statewide act, at least now a comprehensive non-discrimination act protecting transgender people has been passed in the county where I live and work,” she said.

Equality Maryland board member Dana Beyer, who is transgender, said the combined efforts to protect Montgomery County’s law represented a step forward.

“This past year, we’ve been doing education on it,” she said, “and had we simply passed the bill unanimously and gone on to the next thing, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do education locally and nationally.”

Dan Furmansky, Equality Maryland’s executive director, agreed that much has changed since last year’s ENDA dispute.

“I think the one merit to having the legislation reach the ballot would have been showing members of Congress that the public truly supports this kind of legislation,” he said. “However, it was far more important to put this into effect immediately and shut down the campaign of negative rhetoric surrounding it.”

Lisa Mottet, the transgender civil rights project director at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, said that her organization helped with the case that went to the Maryland Court of Appeals, donated $20,000 to found Basic Rights Montgomery and organized phone banks that raised another $12,000 for Basic Rights Montgomery.

“I think the transgender community in Montgomery County was really surprised and thrilled at how much the entire LGBT community in Montgomery County and Maryland and the D.C. area really came together to defeat this measure,” she said. “I believe we’re going to win a transgender-inclusive ENDA in Congress, and this is just one of the victories along the way.”

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