A little over a year ago, the Bathroom and Locker Room Law took effect, and women and children in Massachusetts were forced to forfeit their rights to privacy in order to protect the feelings of a tiny portion of our population. The 2016 "Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Act" was sold to the public and legislators as necessary legislation to protect transgendered individuals from being kicked out of restaurants, hotels, and hospitals.
What the citizens of Massachusetts weren't told was that there were only a handful of allegations of such denial of access to public accommodations and that those claims were already covered under state law. What changed a year ago was access to bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing facilities. It is now a potential criminal civil rights violation for a woman or young girl to object when a biological male undresses next to her in a public facility. This is not progress for our Commonwealth. We should not require women to sacrifice their privacy and safety to make others feel more comfortable.
