Massachusetts Government Says It Can Force Transgender Bathroom Policies On Churches
Massachusetts Government Says It Can Force Transgender Bathroom Policies On Churches, Guidance Says
"Public Advocate legal counsel will seek to help properly defend against this new assault
against Christian faith and religious liberty in America," said Eugene Delgaudio, president
of Public Advocate.
The Daily Caller Reports:
Under a Massachusetts civil rights agency's interpretation of new anti-discrimination law, churches can be forced to let biological males who identify as transgender women use the women's bathroom.
Recently passed legislation amending the state's anti-discrimination law to include protections for "gender identity" will take effect Oct. 1.
The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, which enforces the state's anti-discrimination laws, recently published a "Gender identity guidance" that lays out what will be legally required of employers and "agents of places of public accommodation."
The guidance was published Sept. 1 but has gone unreported by the media until now. The commission confirmed that the version of the guidance online is the "final edition."
Beginning Oct. 1, the guidance notes, "All persons, regardless of gender identity, shall have the right to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any place of public accommodation."
Read more (please support the Daily Caller) : http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/07/massachusetts-can-force-transgender-bathroom-policies-on-churches-guidance-says/#ixzz4JmkAcNSm
Other news source: (Washington Post, Opinion)
In part:
"...............................People shouldn't say derogatory things about transgender people, at least when those people can overhear. Maybe churches could do something different in sermons, or behind closed doors - but once they open their doors for "secular events," church leaders have to use the words that the law requires, even when they view them as false or even blasphemous, and have to suppress offensive speech by their congregants. I don't share this view, but I take it that some do.
But I just think it should be clear that this is where these rules are headed, at least in places like Massachusetts but likely elsewhere as well................"