BOSTON, Mass. — Massachusetts residents voted on Tuesday to retain a state law that allows those who identify as the opposite sex to use the restroom that aligns with their “gender identity.”
67.8 percent of voters approved Question 3, with approximately 2.6 million residents casting their ballot. The question revolves around a non-discrimination ordinance passed in 2016 and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker.
“This law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in a person’s admission to or treatment in any place of public accommodation. The law requires any such place that has separate areas for males and females (such as restrooms) to allow access to and full use of those areas consistent with a person’s gender identity. The law also prohibits the owner or manager of a place of public accommodation from using advertising or signage that discriminates on the basis of gender identity,” the ballot text read in part.
The law also directs the Commission Against Discrimination to create recommendations on how to carry out the law.
The coalition Keep Massachusetts Safe had sought to present the ballot question as it felt that the ordinance went too far and did not protect the privacy of women and children. The group says it collected more than 50,000 signatures to place the repeal effort on the ballot.
“This law endangers the privacy and safety of women and children in public bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, dressing rooms, and other intimate places, because anyone—regardless of intentions or anatomy—can be there at any given time. The law does not have a process to distinguish between people that this bill was intended to help and criminals who will abuse it to prey on others,” the Keep Massachusetts Safe website states.
It says that the coalition also opposes the law because it “opens businesses, homeless shelters, athletic teams and hospitals to lawsuits if they refuse individuals full access to sex-segregated facilities or programs based on their anatomy.”
However, those who campaigned in favor of keeping the ordinance on the books reportedly had a significant financial advantage, and The Boston Globe reports that 4,000 volunteers knocked on over 300,000 doors and made over two million phone calls.
“Winning this popular vote is irrefutable proof that public support for transgender people is growing, and tonight’s outcome will provide the necessary momentum to change the landscape on transgender rights everywhere,” said the Yes on 3 campaign in a tweet on Tuesday.
Keep Massachusetts Safe expressed disappointment that the ordinance was not struck down by voters.
“We are deeply disappointed that the people of Massachusetts will continue to be forced to sacrifice their privacy and safety in the name of political correctness,” said legal analyst Andrew Beckwith in a statement. “We will move forward, developing other strategies to protect the rights of those who are negatively affected by this law.”
As previously reported, the Bible teaches that all men are born with the Adamic sin nature, and have various inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, being utterly incapable of changing themselves. It is why Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” he declared. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
“Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast off himself,” also wrote the late preacher and Bible commentator Alexander Maclaren.
“But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralyzed beyond writhing and indifferent, because [they are] hopeless, or because they have come to like their captivity, comes one whose name is ‘The Breaker,’ whose mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the limbs and sets the bondsman free.”
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