The Senate Stalls Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act

UPDATE: House Bill 235, The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act, has moved to the Senate’s Rules Committee. Advocates fear that this move effectively kills the bill for this session.

When The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act, House Bill 235, passed favorably in the House of Delegates this past weekend, proponents were skeptically hopeful of the bill’s upcoming chances in the Senate.
Previously, four similar versions of the bill have failed to pass the Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee. This time, advocates of HB 235 hoped that the bill would stand a fighting a chance. This belief is founded on their extremely controversial decision to remove public accommodations from the bill’s protections.
This removal has divided the LGBTQ community. Many transgender individuals and allies have called for the dismissal of HB 235 until it provides full protections. Supporters state that the bill would only pass if proceeded incrementally.

The Baltimore Indypendent Reader's previous piece Victories, Obstacles, and Contentions: The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act  analyzes these issues in further coverage.

It appears that the controversial removal may have been all for naught.
HB 235 was believed to be set to move to the Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee for debate on Monday, March 28,2011.

Recently, it has been learned that HB 235 was moved to the Senate’s Rules Committee by Senate President Miller. Partially chairing the Rules Committee is Senator Frosh, who has been acknowledged to pose as a stalemate to this act.  However, Senator Frosh’s office states that he had nothing to do with this decision. President Miller was unavailable for comment on why he moved the bill.
Historically, bill’s are only moved to the Rules Committee if there are believed problems. If the bill is stalled in committee, it is unlikely that the bill will favorably pass before this session ends on April 11th.

Equality Maryland, Maryland’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organization, released that, “This is absolutely a serious hurdle to advancing job & housing protections in MD this year. We already started working with our legislative allies and community leaders last night to assess the best strategies and tactics to keep this important bill moving. It is challenging, but this bill could literally save lives and is worth fighting for. We will work every second until the session is over to see this through.”

While many supporters of the bill find themselves setback, many opponents believe this to be a potentially “happy death”. Transgender activists and allies hope that with the divisive bill at a standstill, a currently embattled community will make amends in order to put forth a united front, rather than piecemeal, in prospective sessions. Argued is that with the ostensible fifth death of HB 235, a solidified community is the only tonic towards obtaining genderqueer/transgender equal rights in the areas of employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations, in a Senate that is fueled by bigotry in their consistent refusals.
As legislative fights prove continuously fruitless, many voices within the LGBTQ community are strenghtened in opposition to the mainstream modern homo-normative plights for assimilation and “equality” with cisgender hegemony that inevitably equate the loss of real systemic change and achievements for a new queer world that works to destabilize and transform pervasive norms.

Stay tuned for The Baltimore Indypendent Reader’s continual coverage of The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act.