The state Senate early this morning gave final legislative approval to a bill that provides equal protection to transgender people.
The measure, which passed on a largely party-line vote of 20 to 16, seek to bar discrimination in the workplace or while seeking housing or obtaining credit based on gender identity and expression. It cleared the House of Representatives last month and now heads to the desk of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has pledged to sign it.
"It is not in, my estimation, a big deal to provide the protection they are seeking,'' Sen. Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield and the co-chairman of the legislature's judiciary committee. "In my estimation, that's what the state of Connecticut should be about.'
Sen. Edward Meyer recalled an old friend named Richard Raskind, who later underwent gender reassignment surgery and became Renee Richards, a renowned tennis player who later sued for the right to play in the U.S. Open as a woman without having to undergo chromosonal testing.
"He became a true transgender, a true woman,'' Meyer said. "The change was really remarkable."
Sen. Beth Bye recalled a group of transgendered speakers who visited her church. "They talked about discrimination in their own families, they talked about discrimination they faced in their communities...they talked about what happened in restaurants, they talked about job insecutity."
And when asked what would have happened had they not transitioned to the gender that truly reflected who they are, "the answer just took all of our breathe away,'' Bye said, her voice breaking. "Because every single one said I'd be dead."
While supporters view the bill as a question of civil rights, critics derided it as "the bathroom bill" and said it could open the door for male predators to gain access to women's public restrooms by pretending to be transgender.
Sen. John Kissel, a Republican from Enfield who has supported similar proposals in the past, said he does not want to discourage anyone from exercising their rights.
"But I would ask at this point in time whether any one of us has an unfettered right to go, if we're a male to a female bathroom, or if we're a female, to a male bathroom,'' Kissel asked.
Kissel and the other Republicans who oppose the measure offered several amendments, including one that would exempt public spaces whose access is determined by gender, such as restrooms and lockers. Another amendment would have given school districts the right to reassign a teacher who is transitioning to another gender. Each of the proposed changes was shot down.
