Cox: Question 3 to ‘send a message’

Voters to decide whether to uphold law protecting transgender people

As the federal government weighs changes to legal definitions around sex and gender, a vote to uphold a Massachusetts law aimed at protecting transgender people from discrimination would send a message to the nation, actress Laverne Cox told a group of educators, transgender students and parents yesterday.

Speaking at a Yes on 3 event, Cox offered a message to transgender people, telling them, “We are each here for a divine purpose.”

Cox, a transgender activist and actress known for her role in the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black,” urged Massachusetts voters to “choose love today, and not fear” and vote yes on Question 3.

“Massachusetts has an opportunity to send a message to this administration, has an opportunity to send a message to the rest of the country that this is not who we are as Americans, that this is not who we are as human beings, that we respect the humanity of everyone,” she said.

Cox focused on transgender youth and educators’ support for the law, calling the ballot question “a reminder to me that the fight is never done, that even when we think we have our rights there are still people out there who want to take them away.”

Signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in July 2016, the law bans discrimination based on gender identity in places of public accommodations, including hotels, parks and restaurants, and allows transgender people to access sex-segregated locker rooms and bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy said the law helps transgender students feel safe, accepted and included at schools.

Boston Teachers Union President Jessica Tang, and Beth Kontos, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, also spoke at the event, held at the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth Community Center.

Tang, who said she is the first openly queer head of the BTU, said the vote will have “national implications.”

Speakers referenced a New York Times report from the weekend that said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is looking to establish, under the federal civil rights law Title IX, a legal definition of sex as either male or female, based on the genitals a person is born with.

“We have a lot of different concepts right now,” President Trump told reporters in Washington, D.C., Monday, according to a Time video.