← Appropriations & Oversight Committee · 2018-09-06 · Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting
Public Comment
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
Transcript
▶ 16:32 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on mmtv it's also available on the city of Mauro's website motion to open the floor for public comment Madam Chair second we have a motion to open the floor for public comment made by Alderman Mortimer seconded by Alderman Forbes all in favor aye any opposed we are now in the portion of the meeting where any member of the public can come before us to speak on any item on our agenda is there anyone wishing to speak
▶ 17:00 Speaker 3: good evening good evening Madam Chair members of the Board of Aldermen my name is Adam LaFrance
▶ 17:11 Speaker 4: I'm here in my individual capacity and on behalf of the Melrose Human Rights Commission.
▶ 17:18 Speaker 4: And I'd like to speak to a resolution that's pending before you this evening by reading a letter of support that was submitted on behalf of the number of individuals from the Melrose Commission on Women and the Melrose Human Rights Commission.
▶ 17:30 Speaker 4: It's a training group, so I won't be doing that. Dear Alderman, the members of the undersigned Melrose Commission on Women and the Melrose Human Rights Commission unanimously support transgender equality and urge you to adopt the resolution reaffirming current City of Melrose and Massachusetts non-discrimination laws prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodations on the basis of gender identity and gender expression proposed by Alderman Bewtra. As you are aware, there is an upcoming attempt to strip the protections already in place for transgender and other gender non-conforming individuals in Massachusetts by way of an upcoming ballot question in November. It is reported that opponents secured signatures of approximately less than 1% of the Commonwealth's population to force this settled issue back onto the 2018 ballot for potential repeal. By way of background, in 2016, Governor Charlie Baker signed a law which added gender identity to the list of reasons people cannot be discriminated against in public spaces. Although opponents have often focused on public bathrooms, the law prevents discrimination in all public accommodations, including hotels, stores, restaurants, parks, theaters, sports facilities, medical offices and hospitals, among others. A prior law from 2007 already extended protections to employment, housing, credit and higher education, but not public accommodations. Melrose has been a front runner in protecting the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in our city. Two years prior to even the state level enactment of these protections referenced above, the city of Melrose showed extraordinary leadership and commitment to equality and dignity for all, when the Melrose Board of Aldermen included gender identity and gender expression in its human rights policy statement, thus ensuring equal opportunity and protection from discrimination in housing, employment, education, public accommodations, city services, insurance, banking, credit, and healthcare in Melrose as of December 14, 2014. The Melrose Public Schools also issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to the rights of transgender students to a safe and the Birmingham school environment after the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice rescinded policies directing these agencies to treat a student's gender identity as the student's sex for the purposes of Title IX and its implementing regulations. In the face of the approaching threat to repeal the laws which protect the dignity, rights, and equality of transgender and nonconforming gender individuals in our community, we ask that our city once again demonstrate leadership and its commitment to its motto of one community, open to all, by reiterating our commitment to protecting members of our community when we consider this issue we must remember that transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in our state city and community are frequently confronted with discrimination and worse transgender individuals need these specific protections because they prefer they suffer pervasive discrimination and disproportionately high levels of
▶ 20:13 Speaker 4: crime these laws are necessary to ensure that no one faces discrimination or violence based on their gender identity we appreciate your time and the attention needed to ensure safe and just society for all Melroseans regardless of gender identity. We stand united in support of the resolution referenced above and I propose to Alderman Bewtra and ask that her resolution be passed by the
▶ 20:33 Speaker 3: full Board of Aldermen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Please be sure to sign
▶ 20:35 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: in on this sheet if you haven't yet. Thank you. Any other members of the public? Good
▶ 20:52 Speaker 1: evening. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Liz DeSalle, 33 South High Street Melrose I want to thank you for being here tonight and listening to me
▶ 21:02 Speaker 4: we have come so very far in this community from the establishment of the Miller's Human Rights Commission in 1992 to the adoption of the city model one
▶ 21:16 Speaker 1: community open for all in 1993 to the municipal election of 1998 when Melrose
▶ 21:23 Speaker 4: elected a gay mayor to the election in late and 2015 when Melrose elected their
▶ 21:32 Speaker 4: first openly transgender person to any public office to 2017 when Melrose
▶ 21:38 Speaker 4: elected their first person of color yay their first woman person of color to any public office Melrose has shown to be a trailblazer and at the forefront of
▶ 21:48 Speaker 1: breaking ceilings and a model community for this Commonwealth but our work isn't
▶ 21:58 Speaker 1: done thanks to the inclusion of gender identity within the city's
▶ 22:06 Speaker 4: non-discrimination ordinance enacted by this body in 2014 transgender people and
▶ 22:11 Speaker 4: genderqueer people gender fluid people can shop can live can thrive in our community without fear of being turned away for presenting ourselves with
▶ 22:25 Speaker 1: authenticity however these basic human rights are now threatened when a small
▶ 22:30 Speaker 4: but vocal minority within the Commonwealth can rally to add a ballot
▶ 22:35 Speaker 4: measure that will strip trans people their rights in public spaces we need to
▶ 22:47 Speaker 4: act and be vigilant when the United States Secretary of Education rescinded
▶ 22:48 Speaker 1: transgender protected protection guidelines federally Melrose
▶ 22:56 Speaker 4: superintendent and the Melrose school committee acted by reaffirming that all students are welcome and deserving of an educational environment where they can learn explore and grow without fear of institutional recrimination on the
▶ 23:13 Speaker 4: school committee our work isn't done Board of Aldermen neither is yours I
▶ 23:22 Speaker 4: ask you to vote to affirm transgender protections this November and it begins
▶ 23:26 Speaker 1: tonight with this vote to endorse trans rights to endorse the yes on three
▶ 23:32 Speaker 4: campaign because trans rights at its core are human rights commonly referred
▶ 23:40 Speaker 1: to as the bathroom bill this ballot measure would repeal a hard-won transgender public accommodations law passed by the Massachusetts legislature
▶ 23:49 Speaker 4: in 2016 when a group of people are denied access to basic services and
▶ 23:55 Speaker 4: denied access public bathrooms are the most basic of human services they are denied the ability to function in public society they are not merely marginalized
▶ 24:11 Speaker 4: They are told they are dehumanized. That is the net effect of removing public accommodations.
▶ 24:18 Speaker 4: I'd like to share with you a personal story about my own experiences as a transgender person and bathrooms.
▶ 24:27 Speaker 4: When I transitioned at work, and keep in mind I only came out at work long after I was into this process,
▶ 24:34 Speaker 4: I asked my administration, my managers, which bathrooms I could use. I worked in a chemistry lab on the third floor at the very end of a building. And there were a women's room just down the hall. And I said, I would like to use that room when I need to use the restroom. They denied me. They said no.
▶ 24:56 Speaker 1: Instead, what they said is I could go down three flights of stores, out exiting the building into the lobby where there were gender-neutral bathrooms,
▶ 25:02 Speaker 4: and I could use those instead.
▶ 25:08 Speaker 4: I'm not alone in facing discrimination at work.
▶ 25:15 Speaker 4: because I'm trans. In a study from 2016 by the National Center for Transgender
▶ 25:19 Speaker 4: Equality, 30% of more than 27,000 self-identified gender fluid, gender
▶ 25:24 Speaker 1: queer, or transgender people stated they have been discriminated, harassed, or
▶ 25:30 Speaker 4: otherwise treated badly in their workplace because of their transition or or being transgender.
▶ 25:38 Speaker 1: 29% of respondents said that they lived in poverty.
▶ 25:45 Speaker 4: And nearly 15% of those said that they
▶ 25:49 Speaker 1: were unemployed or unemployable.
▶ 25:53 Speaker 1: These are adults who, like me, chose to live authentically and yet face discrimination at work
▶ 25:59 Speaker 4: or could not get meaningful work because of who they were.
▶ 26:06 Speaker 1: Nearly one third of those who responded to this survey reported being mistreated in the last year in public spaces they were harassed
▶ 26:16 Speaker 4: at the grocery store they were misgendered intentionally while seeking
▶ 26:21 Speaker 1: health care I've had that happen to me they refused access to restrooms at work
▶ 26:27 Speaker 1: or in restaurants or passed over for promotion again me at or worse fired
▶ 26:34 Speaker 4: from their job or unable to secure housing the list goes on look I'm not
▶ 26:39 Speaker 1: naive I do not believe that you can legislate society of opinion however I
▶ 26:46 Speaker 1: do believe that by legislating conduct and public spaces society will in time
▶ 26:52 Speaker 4: grow more tolerant if not more outright accepting so now I ask you to continue
▶ 26:57 Speaker 1: this legacy I ask you to vote yes on three I ask you to affirm transgender rights and I ask you to affirm the rights of gender non-conforming people
▶ 27:12 Speaker 1: affirm our basic collective humanity because when you dehumanize a person or
▶ 27:18 Speaker 4: a population you shame them into thinking they are not worthy of life you
▶ 27:23 Speaker 4: create an environment of self-loathing of intolerance and of easy bigotry you
▶ 27:28 Speaker 1: create an environment where suicide and mental health issues abound. Forty
▶ 27:37 Speaker 1: percent of those 27,000 respondents reported having attempted suicide at
▶ 27:42 Speaker 1: least once in their life. Thirty-nine percent reported in the last year major
▶ 27:50 Speaker 1: mental health challenges. I'm here before you to tell you that I am worthy. My community is worthy. Transgender people are worthy and gender non-conforming
▶ 28:03 Speaker 4: people are worthy i vote i ask you again vote to endorse the yes on three ballot measure by doing
▶ 28:11 Speaker 1: so you endure you affirm my humanity as well as your own i leave you with this a quote by
▶ 28:23 Speaker 4: senator tammy baldwin all of us who are openly gay and living and writing the history of our movement
▶ 28:31 Speaker 1: We are no more and no less heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century
▶ 28:37 Speaker 1: and the organizers and the freedom writers and the stonewall demonstrators and the environmentalists of the 20th century.
▶ 28:45 Speaker 1: We are ordinary people living ordinary lives
▶ 28:51 Speaker 1: and trying, as civil rights activist Dorothy Cotton said,
▶ 28:54 Speaker 4: to fix what ain't right within our society.
▶ 28:57 Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
▶ 29:09 Paul Brodeur: Good evening, Representative. Good evening, everybody. My name is Paul Broder. I live at 125 Trenton Street, and I'm the state representative for the city that we sit in today. And I appreciate the opportunity, and it's not my strong point, but I will do my best to be respectful of your time and attention. And Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity to speak, and through you to the members of the board. A little history that you've already heard in December of 2014, this board made the decision on a unanimous vote to add transgender protections into our human rights policy statement. We made it the policy of the city of Melrose that we would recognize and protect transgender rights, including in the area of public accommodations. And that vote was unanimous. It was a 10 to nothing vote not too long ago. I'm happy to say, based on the leadership and example of the Melrose Board of Aldermen, and I want to say nine other communities, I think Melrose was the tenth at the time Melrose took action. The legislature, after taking some initial steps to protect those rights in 2011 or 2012, entered into the debate and passed overwhelmingly public accommodations in our anti-discrimination statute and extended that protection to transgendered individuals. That bill was passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the legislature with a strong bipartisan consensus. And it was signed into law by Republican Governor Charlie Baker in July 2016. In the run up to that debate, there was a colleague of mine who's now a leader of the opposition to the civil rights measure, who described it in the media as a radical social engineering, or this radical agenda
▶ 31:08 Speaker 1: of the progressive left.
▶ 31:14 Speaker 1: Hardly.
▶ 31:16 Paul Brodeur: Hardly. Here's a list of some of the radicals who supported this controversial legislation when it was before the Massachusetts legislature. Police chiefs, including the chiefs of all the major cities and towns, cities in Massachusetts. Faith leaders, all our professional sports team, kind of the big five. Domestic violence prevention advocates, former Mayor Dolan, our current mayor, Mayor Inferner. And really, just about every member of our business community. The list I just gave, I don't think, is kind of a list of stalwart progressive civic leaders from really across the political, social, and economic spectrum. And why did they do it? You'd have to ask them, obviously, but I suspect because it was fair and right, and from the business community perspective, discrimination is bad for business. North Carolina certainly saw that when they went in a different direction from what this community and this Commonwealth did and I think they recognize that in addition to recognizing it's just the right thing to do so what this law does it says to our neighbors our friends that transgendered individuals and their families you know what we tell them with them that their civil rights are important to us and that they deserve the equal rights and protections of the laws of the Commonwealth just like anyone else it says to our friends and neighbors, that you cannot be denied service at restaurants, at the doctor, movie theaters, public transportation, yes, bathrooms, and locker rooms, because of your gender identity. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a radical law or a radical proposition. It is the law of the land in 19 or 20 states, the District of Columbia, and hundreds of cities and towns across the United States. It is, quite frankly, a civil rights law that was overdue when we finally took action. Massachusetts likes to pride itself on being a leader in issues of civil rights. Quite frankly, we were not. We were a little bit late to the game. So I would respectfully suggest that we don't go backwards. We had a robust and thoughtful debate, and one thing that we also need to keep in mind is, I think we're going to hear some very challenging propositions as this campaign goes along. In terms of public safety or disruption of the public order or stress in our educational institutions, we have not seen that in Massachusetts, and we have not seen it in any of the other jurisdictions that have passed this law. What we are really saying is that everyone deserves a shot.
▶ 34:09 Paul Brodeur: But everyone deserves to be treated on their merits to present themselves to society and to their community the way that they are. Nothing more and nothing less. And I commend this board for unanimously stepping forward before the legislature did in 2014. And I hope sincerely that you step forward again and this unanimously and send a message to our friends in the transgender community to the Commonwealth at large and quite frankly to the entire country that we stand for civil rights and just to make sure folks are clear what that means in practical effect vote yes on three thank you Altamont Bhutra for your leadership on this thank you all for your thoughtful
▶ 35:19 Speaker 1: consideration I appreciate the opportunity to speak today thank you Carolyn Cronin on 22 Greenwood Street I just wanted to you've heard all the details from the prior speakers but just to endorse just as a citizen that it this is an appropriate type of issue for the alderman to It is part of what Melrose is, one city for all, it is a public health issue. When I went to hear about question three at a Wakefield Town Hall, I was most moved by the police who were there saying, you need to give us the power to protect these people, you can't take that away. This is just a basic human rights issue and I strongly endorse all of you for voting for this resolution and endorsing voting yes in November and showing some leadership on this issue.
▶ 36:13 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Thank you, please be sure to sign in on this sheet if you could.
▶ 36:26 Speaker 4: Thank you. Good evening, my name is Eric Heath, I live at 84 Spear Street and thank you for the opportunity to speak. And thank you for putting this item on your agenda, this order, I guess is the proper term. I may misuse some terms, but you all are going to know what I'm talking about. I'm here particularly to speak to why I think it is vitally important to reaffirm what we've already done and what the state has already done. I think it's worth and critically important to reaffirm and restate again and again the rights of all people in Melrose, the rights of all people everywhere.
▶ 37:26 Speaker 4: In particular, Mr. Selm touched on some of the grim statistics, and I think it's horrifying that the alienation and the hostility and the discrimination against our transgender and gender-neutral neighbors results in so much greater risk to them. Statistics that I've read that I feel are credible and accurate list the percentage of U.S. citizens who attempt suicide sometime in their life at about 4.6%. That's horrifying in itself. The statistic that I've read that I find credible and reliable is that that rate is more like 40% or higher for our transgender citizens. I've heard even much higher percentages for transgender youth.
▶ 38:32 Speaker 4: This is not something that we can ever let escape us. We must take every measure we can to push back against the hostility, the alienation, discrimination against our transgender friends and family members and neighbors. Certainly, my vision for Melrose as a community open to all is that our cisgender neighbors will joyfully embrace the humanity of our transgender neighbors and our transgender neighbors will be able to joyfully be embraced within that shared humanity that that to me is uh is what this is all about and i thank you very much for your attention
▶ 39:28 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak good evening good evening thank you um
▶ 39:43 Speaker 1: for the opportunity to speak my name is judy tasker i live at 40 east highland ave in melrose
▶ 39:50 Speaker 1: i grew up in melrose graduated from melrose high and i'm really just a mom
▶ 39:55 Speaker 1: here on behalf of my child who is transgender and i feel blessed and grateful to live in such a city
▶ 40:05 Speaker 1: that is what truly one community open to all and I really just wanted to put
▶ 40:14 Speaker 1: another face with the name of someone who is transgender and in our school systems and growing up here and working here and I know it's often called the
▶ 40:22 Speaker 1: bathroom bill and so I don't know if I'm allowed to show a picture of my child
▶ 40:31 Speaker 1: But this is my son and my daughter, and you can see that he looks just like every other biological boy.
▶ 40:43 Speaker 1: If he were to use a girl's bathroom, I'm pretty sure you as a father would be very upset that he was in a girl's bathroom.
▶ 40:54 Speaker 1: You would not comprehend that biologically he doesn't match the way he presents.
▶ 41:03 Speaker 1: And I very much fear for his safety if this law were overturned. I do believe it is a matter of public safety for our children. I also believe, I stress all the time to my son that he's so fortunate to live in Melrose. That the school system is wonderful and supportive and there's opportunities like this.
▶ 41:27 Speaker 1: you see the one community open to all bumper sticker and you feel that and he has grown up knowing that this community supports him and I guess I just really
▶ 41:37 Speaker 1: want to ask for your continued support today thank you thank you is there
▶ 41:49 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: anyone else here this evening wishing to speak motion to close public comment
▶ 41:57 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: madam chair second we have a motion to close public comment made by alderman Mortimer seconded by alderman Lippert Garabedi and all in favor all right All right. Any opposed? Well, the comment is now closed. We will move forward to the two items on our agenda this evening, beginning with Order 2019-4, a resolution reaffirming current City of Melrose and Massachusetts non-discrimination laws prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. This order was sponsored by Alderman at-large Manisha Bewtra. Alderman Bewtra.