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BBA Lends its Support to House Bill 1722 The BBA has joined the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association, and the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association in supporting House Bill 1722, An Act Relative to Gender Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes. The Council’s vote in support of the bill followed a presentation by Jennifer C. Tucker of Littler Mendelson, P.C., Co-Chair of the BBA’s Labor & Employment Section. If enacted, the bill will clarify and update Massachusetts’ non-discrimination laws to ensure that they clearly and uniformly protect all people regardless of their gender identity or expression. This bill adds the category of “gender identity or expression” to Massachusetts hate crime laws as well as to the employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and public education non-discrimination laws. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has already clarified that state law currently protects all individuals, including transgender persons, from discrimination based on gender identity or expression. This bill makes those protections explicit, uniform, and visible to the general public. This bill also amends existing hate crime laws to explicitly protect people targeted for violence and harassment because of their gender identity or expression. |