Maine Bill Would Repeal Protections for the Transgendered

[jpak]

http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNewsArchive/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3475/ItemId/15978/Default.aspx

The Maine Legislature is considering a bill that critics say would impinge on the rights of transgendered people. Currently, a transgendered person is entitled to the protection of the Maine Human Rights Act when seeking accommodations to rest rooms, showers and changing facilities. But a bill sponsored by a Newport Republican lawmaker would repeal those protections.

The restroom issue has sparked past legal challenges involving the Orono school department and an Auburn restaurant. But regardless of the process that gave transgendered people protection under the Maine Human Rights Act five years ago, state Rep. Ken Fredette says the time has come to reconsider.

The Newport Republican's bill, which drew a large crowd to the State House, reverses the assumptions that led to the law's enactment in the first place.

"The concept here is that there is not an absolute right for the transgender to go into a bathroom, there's not an absolute right for the transgender to go into a locker room of the sex that they simply identify with," Fredette said.

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