Sep 05, 2008  |  By: AMY CAVANAUGH  | COMMENTS     

The Maryland Court of Appeals will consider Sept. 8 whether Montgomery County’s transgender discrimination measure will go to a public vote.

County officials last year passed legislation that prohibits “discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, cable television service and taxicab service on the basis of gender identity.”
The law was set to take effect in February, but the conservative Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government halted the law’s implementation by placing it on November’s ballot.

Equality Maryland challenged that referendum, noting that a number of the petition signatures were improperly obtained, but Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert Greenberg ruled that Equality Maryland missed the deadline to challenge. The Court of Appeals is poised to determine whether that ruling will stand.

Dana Beyer, an Equality Maryland board member who is transgender, said next week’s hearing will not consider the “content of this law,” but rather “the process by which the referendum was certified.”

“This court vote is not about whether we should have civil rights in Maryland and not about whether trans people are entitled to the same rights,” she said. “This is about process and about the fairness and reliability of the process. We believe the petitioners who filed against the board of elections did so in a prompt and efficient and effective manner, and we believe the Court of Appeals will agree with us."

If the ruling after Monday's hearing is in favor of the petitioners, which includes Equality Maryland, then it will not go to ballot in November.

“While we hope the court will be rigorous in its analysis of whether the process of putting this issue to the ballot met the required standards, we will continue our campaign to talk to the voters of Montgomery County about why they should vote yes in November,” said Carrie Evans, policy director at Equality Maryland.

Should the issue come to a public vote, Beyer said, “Basic Rights Montgomery has a great campaign team, and outreach has begun.”

“We have people who are qualified here and we will be ready,” she said. “But the bottom line is that I know the voters of Montgomery County are decent people who do not give into bigotry and will support the law as they supported the Council members who voted unanimously for it.”

Basic Rights Montgomery, a coalition of community leaders and organizations that are fighting attempts to repeal the transgender anti-discrimination law, will lead any public campaign to counter the referendum.

Heading up the effort is Eric Anthony, who on Wednesday replaced Opel Simmons III as campaign manager for Basic Rights Montgomery. Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, said Simmons left for “personal reasons.”

Furmansky noted that Basic Rights Montgomery, which is funded in part by Equality Maryland, would work to “flesh out the structure” of the campaign in the weeks ahead.

“We’re looking to expand the field staff, but we’ve always planned to do that,” he said. “Eric has done a phenomenal job with fundraising and media outreach, and we’re looking at where we might find pro bono and consultancy support.”

Anthony, who is gay, most recently worked in seven states on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) presidential campaign. He also has managed campaigns in San Jose, Calif., and a ballot initiative in San Mateo County, Calif.

“I come to this campaign very excited about the opportunity to protect civil rights and fight discrimination,” Anthony said. “It’s not acceptable to discriminate against someone for who they are, and we need to make sure that everyone votes ‘yes’ on question C.”

Simmons, who is straight, said that he decided to work with Basic Rights Montgomery because fighting transgender discrimination is “a basic human and civil rights issue, and it resonates beyond the transgender community.”

“I’m beholden to Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement that ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ since I’m a beneficiary of the civil rights movement,” Simmons said. “I have a passion for securing everyone’s rights, irrespective of how people are received from a mainstream perspective.”

Also working full time are field organizers K.T. Thirion and Shaneequa Brooks.

Thirion, a recent graduate of American University, led campus organizing efforts around LGBT issues, and he also worked as an organizing and training fellow for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.

Brooks, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, was trained by the Human Rights Campaign.

Although Simmons would not release a timetable of Basic Rights Montgomery’s plans before he left the campaign, he noted the campaign must “convince upwards of 250,000 voters in Montgomery County” to support the transgender rights question.

“We have to implement and utilize ...