Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker was booed offstage at Boston Spirit Magazine’s 10th Annual LGBT Executive Networking Night Wednesday night, because his noncommittal stance on proposed legislation that would protect the transgender community from discrimination, according to a Boston Globe article.
Baker refused to take a stand on the controversial bill, which builds on legislation passed by former Gov. Deval Patrick in 2011, according to a WBUR article. Patrick’s legislation banned transgender discrimination in areas of housing and employment, but the law did not include protections from discrimination in “public accommodations,” including lodging, gender-segregated changing rooms, restaurants and restrooms, the article said.
This bill aims to target those areas and increase the safety of the state’s transgender population.
Though Baker did not say that he would veto the bill, he did not offer any substantive promise to support it. He said he would “make sure I talk to all the parties involved” before making a move on the bill. He then made a hasty exit from the event.
Baker repeatedly voices his support for the transgender community, but fails to follow up with substantive evidence that he cares.
Baker has a tendency to brush off the criticism that he shows inconsistent support of the LGBT community by referencing past instances of support. He gives no promises for the future. The protestors at Boston Spirit Magazine’s event were calling for a change, and Baker provided only empty rhetoric to a constantly undermined segment of his constituents.
This is the second time in less than two weeks that Baker has fallen into hot water with the LGBT community, and he seems to be floundering. On April 7, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce disinvited Baker from one of their events, following news that he would attend a GOP conference in Las Vegas.
Both instances point to the inconsistencies in Baker’s stances regarding the LGBT community, and the unfortunate trappings of party politics. Though he constantly claims that “no one in Massachusetts should be discriminated against,” his words appear increasingly hollow as time goes on and no change is implemented.
The GOP is infamous for being less than accommodating to the LGBT community, and by not taking a stance on this issue, Baker is pandering to their demands. Though he may support the LGBT community individually, his tenure as a public official says otherwise, because of his alignment with the Republican party.
Baker is an elected public official, not a private individual. Consequently, he has an obligation to take a stance on controversial issues, ignorant of his party association. By not participating in such an important issue, he appears to be blatantly ignoring an already-marginalized group of individuals. Unlike a private individual, Baker does not have the luxury or privilege to not take a stand.
Discrimination against the trans community is a real issue. Forty-one percent of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals who responded to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey Report have attempted suicide in their lives. This is not just another issue that can be seen as “controversial.” The lives of Baker’s constituents are at stake, yet he has chosen to remain reticent.
The current state of transgender discrimination in public accommodations harkens back to the ages of racial discrimination, when African Americans were barred from using the same restrooms as white people. The same fear tactics that were employed in this era have recently been used to target the transgender community.
In November, Houston voted on the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. This is is similar to Massachusetts’s bill, complete with its acceptance of transgender individuals using public restrooms. Before the vote, a conservative ad campaign showed a young girl being confronted by an older man in a restroom, vilifying the transgender community as sexual predators.
A New Republic article points out that this is not the first time something like this has been done, considering World War II-era conservatives would portray African Americans as preying on white women in bathrooms.
Beyond the scare tactics and excuses made by his GOP cohorts, Baker’s lack of advocacy is shameful, and hiding behind party politics is a cowardly move.
Clever voyeurs who like to stalk little children and who receive sexual gratification from hanging out and watching little girls are testing the new pro-LGBTQ state laws allowing members of the transgendered community to choose whatever gender bathroom they feel an affinity for choosing.
Other predatory men — such as child molesters and child rapists — could easily use the same tactic.
These criminals know they now may enter the restrooms of little girls at elementary schools, Shakey’s pizza parlors, child care centers where these laws are in existence.
The laws are meant to protect members of the transgendered community. But anyone who recites the words, “I’m feeling like a woman today” allows them access to the private restrooms where little girls go.
Liberals defending the law admit they never think their legislation through for possible negative or catastrophic consequences, but they excuse themselves for creating these dangerous situations by claiming “well, tough, I meant well”.
I expect to hear liberals claim “It’s okay, thousands of little girls will just have to be sacrificed because adults with gender dysmorphia can feel normal.
But I get it. Little girls don’t vote. And when you’ve been raised getting trophies for participating in life, you think you are right because you say you are.
Isn’t blaming Baker for being booed off stage a classic victim-blaming maneuver?