"Plaintiffs in Howe v. Haslam Respond to Ruling"

Last year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed HB 600 into law. This piece of legislation prohibits local governments from enacting any anti-discrimination policies to protect LGBT persons, if those policies are stricter than the ones currently in force at the state level. (Currently, Tennessee has no statewide law barring discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.) On January 25, 2012, Chancellor L. McCoy issued a preliminary order in Howe v. Haslam, the case challenging HB 600, which gives the plaintiffs in the case 30 days to provide additional proof that they have been harmed by the law in order to prevent the case from being dismissed.

Full story at the NCLR's Blog.

Thanks to OUTlaw President Erika Scibelli for the link to the story.

Massachusetts Passes Transgender Anti-Discrimination Bill

The Massachusetts Senate passed a bill which protects transgender people in the housing and credit industries as well as the workplace, and includes them under hate crime protections. The bill also adds the definition of gender identity to the General Laws of Massachusetts:

"Gender identity" shall mean a person's gender-related identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth. Gender-related identity may be shown by providing evidence including, but not limited to, medical history, care or treatment of the gender-related identity, consistent and uniform assertion of the gender-related identity or any other evidence that the gender-related identity is sincerely held, as part of a person's core identity; provided however, gender-related identity shall not be asserted for improper purpose.

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 95-56 and has been sent to be signed by Governor Deval Patrick.

Thanks to OUTlaw 1L Rep. Kaley Lentini for the link.