In the year since he came out to his parents as transgender, 20-year-old Eli Plumb of Pembroke has experienced little of the prejudice that transgender people elsewhere in the country have endured. But with a referendum on transgender rights headed to the ballot next month, he fears what his life in Massachusetts could become.

When Gov. Charlie Baker signed a 2016 law that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity in public places, Plumb said it gave transgender people a safety net of baseline protections. But a referendum on this year's ballot could undo some of those rights and, Plumb said, the sense among transgender people that Massachusetts is a state the welcomes and celebrates them.

"It's demoralizing to say the least," he said.

Question 3 on the Nov. 6 ballot asks residents if they support the anti-discrimination law signed by Baker, which added gender identity to a list of protected classes that includes race, national origin and gender. The law made it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity in any public place, including restaurants, retail stores and public restrooms.

A yes vote would leave the law how it is; a no vote would repeal it.

Yvette Ollada, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the institute has campaigned for the law's repeal because its members believe it is too broad. She said the law allows anyone wishing to enter a public bathroom assigned to the opposite sex to do so, including sexual predators.



“Under the law, all they have to do is say they identify as a woman and the law protects them. The core issue here is that you are enabling people to prey on and victimize women,” she said. “We want it to go back to the Legislature, for them to take another crack at it, and for them to draft something that protects all of the residents of Massachusetts."



Supporters of the law, however, note that there have been no recorded increase in assaults in public restrooms since the law passed two years ago. Matthew Wilder with Freedom for All Massachusetts, the group advocating to keep the law, also noted that sexual assault remains illegal under the law, whether or not the assaulter claims to be transgender.

Transgender people on the South Shore say the referendum is also about much more than bathrooms.

Christine Smith, a Pembroke mother, said when her son Aiden McKenna first came out she was grateful his home state had the protections he'd need as an openly transgender person. Then, as soon as McKenna moved home from college in Virginia, it was put in jeopardy by the ballot question.

"I thought ‘oh, I'm coming back to Massachusetts,’ which is a place I consider to be a safe and supportive place to live," McKenna said. "Then the first thing I hear is ‘oh, Question 3, people don’t want you to be publicly protected.’ It really did feel like an emotional punch to the gut."

McKenna said he has never been physically assaulted in Massachusetts but that he goes out of his way to take extra precautions to assure his safety, like not providing a photo for this article.

"That's my big fear: that someone walks in, sees my picture and says 'oh, you're that weird trans person I saw in the paper and I have a problem with that,'" he said.

It's that fear that inspired Smith to stand up for McKenna's rights ahead of November's election.

"You worry about how other people are going to treat them," she said. "There's a lot of violence against transgender individuals, you wonder about things like being attacked on the street and you also worry about him not getting a job or being discriminated against in things like housing. . . Nobody should be able to be discriminated against because of who they are."

Pembroke mother Jade Fontaine said she feels like advocating a yes vote on Question 3 is her duty as a mom. Fontaine's 9-year-old son, Kye, is transgender, and she fears a no vote will only make the challenges he will inevitably face even more daunting.

"We have to be an advocate for him because he can't be for himself," she said. "I want to make sure that my son has a good, safe life when he gets older and that he is accepted. . . . It's voting on civil rights. It shouldn't even be a question."

So far, Kye hasn't had any trouble using the bathroom he wants in public and hasn't faced any outward discrimination, but Fontaine said that could be because he is usually with his parents in public, and, not having gone through puberty yet, looks very much like a boy.

"I get nervous for when he gets older," she said. "We wonder what his future will be like. I want to make sure that when he gets older he can use a boy's bathroom, or that he can use the locker rooms at school. For him, in high school, to have to go into a girl's locker room would be devastating for him."

Despite never having experienced outward acts of hate himself, Plumb said he too feels compelled to stand up for his more-vulnerable peers. Plumb said his looks allow him to fly under the radar and not attract attention as a transgender man, but that those transitioning to become female are often targeted much more aggressively.

"I don't think I'm going to go into a store and be told to get out, but that would become an option if there is a 'no' vote," he said. "A transgender woman could walk into a building and have someone say 'I don't like that you are a man dressed as a woman — get out.'"

Smith said her vocal support for a yes vote is no different than any parent advocating for their child, and likened it to parents fighting for gun safety in schools.

"It's what any parent would do to protect their kid," she said. "Your maternal instinct takes over and you think, 'I'm going to do whatever I can do protect them.'"

Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

PROS AND CONS

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS

Freedom for All Massachusetts (in favor)

Keeping Massachusetts Safe (opposed)

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