{"id":2187,"date":"2014-03-05T11:42:17","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T16:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2014-03-05T11:43:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T16:43:50","slug":"dem-gov-hopefuls-testify-for-fama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=2187","title":{"rendered":"Dem Gov Hopefuls Testify for FAMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"govhopefuls\"<\/a>Del. Heather Mizeur, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, and AG Doug Gansler<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re fortunate that all three of the major Democratic candidates for governor are strong supporters of the Fairness for All Marylanders Act, the trans equality legislation. I know many appreciate their united support despite other differences, so I thought I’d share snippets of their testimony.<\/p>\n

Today, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown will testify before the House Health and Government Operations Committee in support of the bill. He issued a press release stating:<\/p>\n

\n

“No Marylander should face discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientaion,” said Lt. Governor Brown. “By passing the Fairness for All Marylanders Act we will take an important step forward for equality and provide Marylanders with the assurance that here, in our State, all citizens will be afforded equal rights and protections under the law.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Attorney General Doug Gansler advocated for marriage equality long before it become fashionable. Here is a portion of the testimony he submitted to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee:<\/p>\n

The Constitution’s command to provide “the equal protection of the laws” applies to “any person” within a state’s jurisdiction, regardless of that person’s identity. We deprive our citizens of that equal protection when we allow discrimination against them on the basis of their gender identity. Inequality for any person is inequality for all of us. Gender identity, like race, sex, sexual orientation, and creed, must not be tolerated as a ground for denying any person the opportunity to obtain employment, housing, and public accommodation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Del. Heather Mizeur is a member of the LGBT Caucus and a longtime advocate for this legislation. As the Washington Blade<\/em> reported, she advocated strongly in favor before the Senate committee<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Baltimore County and City, Montgomery and Howard Counties \u2013 four of our state\u2019s larger jurisdictions have stepped up to provide nearly half of our state\u2019s residents protection from gender identity discrimination.<\/p>\n

But protection against discrimination shouldn\u2019t depend on your zip code.\u00a0 We need a statewide law.<\/p>\n

And we cannot wait.\u00a0 Real people are suffering real consequences of our inaction.<\/p>\n

Fear and prejudice are not acceptable reason for assigning a vulnerable group of Marylanders to a future of discriminatory practices in employment, housing, and public accommodations.<\/p>\n

17 states and the District of Columbia have stepped forward to do this.\u00a0 The Chrissy Lee Polis\u2019s in Prince George\u2019s County, Southern, Northern, Western Maryland, and the Eastern Shore are expecting us to do the right thing \u2013 to prove to them that Maryland really is the Free State where everyone \u2013 EVERYONE \u2013 gets protected equally under the law.<\/p>\n

There can be no exceptions. And there are no excuses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The House has passed a version of this bill previously. Now that the blockage in the Senate has cleared, we should “get it done” as Heather put it in her testimony and to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Del. Heather Mizeur, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, and AG Doug Gansler We’re fortunate that all three of the major Democratic candidates for governor are strong supporters of the Fairness for All Marylanders Act, the trans equality legislation. I know many appreciate their united support despite other differences, so I thought I’d share snippets of their … Continue reading Dem Gov Hopefuls Testify for FAMA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348,39],"tags":[1534,1498,520,1506,1604,519,484],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbt","category-transgender-rights","tag-anthony-brown","tag-doug-gansler","tag-equality","tag-heather-mizeur","tag-lgbt","tag-maryland-gubernatorial","tag-transgender"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-zh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}