Flurry of pro-LGBT bills on Beacon Hill

While passing a transgender civil rights bill remains the top priority among the state's LGBT advocacy organizations, there are a handful of other LGBT-related bills that advocates will be pushing this session, on topics ranging from bullying prevention to LGBT elder issues to pension benefits to codifying the Goodridge decision into the Massachusetts General Laws.

Though Beacon Hill is expected to focus much of its attention this session on the economy, state Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston) believes lawmakers and advocates will be able to make progress on LGBT-related legislation if they can show that the legislation does not have a substantial price tag.

"In those pieces that we can say, this will have no effect on the economy one way or the other, we will be able to get people to focus in on it, because there's so much stuff we're not going to be able to do over the next few years because they cost money," said Rushing. He said LGBT civil rights legislation would provide lawmakers an opportunity to pass positive legislation that would have little to no cost to the government.

Rushing is one of the lead sponsors of the transgender rights bill, which would outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression, along with Somerville Rep. Carl Sciortino. He has also filed a bill to write the post-Goodridge definition of marriage into the Mass. General Laws and another bill to remove defunct sodomy law language from the state's statutes. Rushing said he believes the latter two bills will be an easy sell, at least in terms of cost, because they both amount to simply cleaning up the language of the Mass. General Laws. He said advocates can make the case that the transgender rights bill will have little cost to the state because, compared to other protected classes such as women, African Americans or gay and lesbian people, the transgender population is exceptionally small.

"One of the things you'll be hearing will be people talking about how small a population we're talking about, particularly when talking about all the other protected classes," said Rushing.

MassEquality and the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus (MGLPC) the two primary LGBT lobbying organizations on Beacon Hill, have overlapping agendas this session, with some key differences. MassEquality Executive Director Marc Solomon said his organization's top priority is the transgender rights bill, and beyond that the organization will focus on an anti-bullying bill and a bill to provide training on LGBT elder needs to elder service agencies. MassEquality will also lobby to maintain funding for the state's LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs.

MGLPC lobbyist Bill Conley said his organization also considers the transgender rights bill its top priority, but beyond that the organization will lobby on a wider range of LGBT-related bills, at least early in the session. MGLPC will lobby on Rushing's marriage equality and sodomy law bills, the anti-bullying bill, and the LGBT elder training, but it will also lobby on several other bills. The organization worked with state Sen. Steve Tolman (D-Boston) and state Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst) to re-file a bill that would give LGBT employees in the higher education field the right to opt into a pension system that provides better benefits for married couples. It will also lobby on behalf of a bill filed by state Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera (D-Springfield) to make it easier for married same-sex couples to change their name on their passport and another bill re-filed by Rep. Alice Wolf (D-Cambridge) to create a state health education requirement. Conley said as the session progresses MGLPC would gauge which bills seem to have the most chance of success and concentrate their resources behind those bills.

"Initially all of them get an equal push," said Conley, excluding the transgender rights bill, which will remain MGLPC's top priority.

Solomon said MassEquality would offer support for the other pro-LGBT bills up for consideration this session, but the organization feels it is important to prioritize the bills that would have the greatest tangible impact. He said at this point he is not convinced that Rushing's marriage equality and sodomy bills are necessary.

"Those are bills that basically fix language but don't have any real consequence because the court overruled enforcement [of the sodomy laws]. So I think they're not real priorities," said Solomon. "We don't need to pass a marriage equality bill in order to have marriage equality. The bills that we're going to prioritize are the ones that help the most people in our community, so the trans bill, the anti-bullying, the elder service bill and a huge focus on funding [will be our priorities]."

Conley said passing Rushing's marriage equality bill in particular is a high priority for MGLPC because it would help secure the Goodridge decision.

"As monumental as the Goodridge decision was, it was a court decision, and until something is in statute there's still the possibility that someone will try to overturn it with another court decision. Unlikely, but we like things to be written into the general laws of the Commonwealth," said Conley.

The LGBT elder training legislation is a new bill filed by state Rep. Barbara L'Italien (D-Andover) on behalf of the LGBT Aging Project. Lisa Krinsky, director of the Aging Project, said the legislation would mandate the state to develop a curriculum on the issues facing LGBT elders. The curriculum would become a mandatory training requirement for elder service providers working under the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs. The Aging Project has offered similar trainings to elder service organizations on a voluntary basis. Krinsky said the legislation is particularly needed because LGBT elders tend to rely more on elder service programs and organizations than other elders.

"LGBT elders tend to have fewer of the kinds of informal resources - family members, friends - to support them, and more LGBT elders are aging alone, so it's more likely they will be dependent on the formal and professional networks of care," said Krinsky.

She acknowledged that lawmakers might be loathe to support legislation that would require money to train elder service providers across the state, but she said the legislation does not place any formal timetables on the training requirement. In the short term it would involve the development of a curriculum that could be adapted to meet the needs of different types of elder service providers, but decisions about implementation could be made down the road.

"I think we would obviously look at the most cost-effective ways for implementation," said Krinsky.

Rep. John Rogers (D-Norwood) has filed an anti-bullying bill in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. Don Gorton, chair of the Anti-Violence Project, said he expects other lawmakers may have filed anti-bullying bills this session, as they have done in years past, but he believes Rogers' bill is the strongest because it is based on ADL model legislation that has been used in other states. The bill requires schools across the state to develop formal policies to respond to a wide range of bullying behaviors, from taunts and physical threats to more recent phenomena like cyber-bullying.

Gorton said that while the bill does not include LGBT-specific language, it is broad enough to cover bullying directed at any student perceived to be LGBT.

"The advantage to this is it's a comprehensive approach to a problem that affects the GLBT community disproportionately. ... It's not special rights for GLBT kids. It's the right of every kid to have an education that's not disrupted by a hostile environment," said Gorton.

Among the other LGBT-related bills filed this session is Tolman and Story's higher education pension reform bill. Conley said the bill affects a very small population but it corrects a grave disparity. Employees in the higher education field have the option of signing up for one of two pension programs administered by the state, the State Employees Retirement System and the newer Optional Retirement Program (ORP), he explained. Conley said the former pension is often the better choice for married employees, but before the Goodridge decision many LGBT employees chose the ORP because it offered more flexibility for people with domestic partners. The pension reform bill would give LGBT employees who chose the ORP pre-Goodridge the option to switch.

"It's very narrowly scoped. It said if you weren't able to marry before the date of the Goodridge decision and if you're a higher-education professional and you're in the non-traditional system, if you apply within one year you'll be allowed to switch," said Conley. "Assuming we can convince folks that there is little to no budget impact, this is very high on our priority list. It's an issue of fairness. It's the state living up to its own commitment to treat our community fairly."

Conley said Coakley-Rivera's passport bill would also help address an inequality facing same-sex couples. The federal government, which does not recognize same-sex marriage, issues passports. If a partner in a same-sex couple legally changes his or her name upon marrying, the federal government generally will refuse to use the new name when issuing a passport. Conley said this can cause complications for LGBT people traveling abroad if the name on their driver's license and passport do not match. Currently the only option for same-sex couples seeking to get their married names on their passports is to go through the formal name change process through the courts.

Coakley-Rivera's bill would allow same-sex couples in this situation to expedite the name-change process.

"The bill simply says if a couple brings their marriage document to the appropriate Massachusetts court, the court will expedite a name-change decree without the waiting period and the cost of advertising. And then the couple can take that name change decree to the federal passport folks, who will recognize that and make the change," said Conley.

MGLPC is also supporting Wolf's health education bill. The bill, which has been filed in past sessions, would make health class a state education requirement, and it has been opposed by anti-LGBT advocates, who argue that it is being used to smuggle pro-gay content into the school curriculum.

MassEquality Political Director Matt O'Malley said advocates would benefit from the political climate on Beacon Hill around LGBT issues; Gov. Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray have been staunch supporters of LGBT rights, and new House Speaker Robert DeLeo supports marriage equality and is a co-sponsor of the transgender rights bill.

"We're very lucky in this state to have a supportive legislature and executive branch, and we'll be working with them to make it a more fair and equitable state for everyone without necessarily pushing for cost-prohibitive bills," said O'Malley.

While LGBT advocates will be pushing for a range of bills this session, HIV/AIDS advocates will be doing relatively little legislative work this session. Monique Tula, director of strategic planning and public policy for AIDS Action Committee (AAC), said AAC has not filed any legislation, although it will lend its support to the transgender rights bill and the health education bill. She said AAC will also work as part of a coalition pushing legislation focused on eliminating healthcare disparities, but it will not be the lead player in that effort.

Tula said AAC is also studying this year's legislation to see if there are any negative bills that HIV/AIDS advocates should oppose.

"Inevitably there is a bill that has been introduced by some legislator around mandatory [HIV] testing. We haven't seen anything; the dockets aren't ready for public view," said Tula.

O'Malley said MassEquality would work to oppose any anti-LGBT legislation, but thus far he is unaware of any filed in the current session. He expects anti-LGBT advocates to devote most of their energy to opposing the transgender rights bill and other legislation.

"I think they seem to be more in a defensive stance as opposed to offense," said O'Malley.