This opinion column was submitted for publication by Senator Ken Donnelly:

Before the midsession break, the Legislature passed a very significant piece of legislation, the Transgender Equal Rights Act. The goal of the law is simple – to ensure the essential protections for transgender residents who are not currently protected in any areas of the Commonwealth’s civil rights laws.

As an advocate for the 4^th Middlesex District – Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, Lexington and Woburn – I have the responsibility to campaign for the rights of all individuals who reside in these communities. I take this responsibility very seriously, which is why I both cosponsored and supported this legislation.

The act, passed on Wednesday, Nov. 16, on a voice vote includes transgender residents as a “protected class” in the state’s hate crime laws, prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in jobs, housing, insurance, mortgage loans and credit.

It defines gender identity as “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.”

The act, once enacted, will provide vital protections for the Commonwealth’s 33,000 transgender residents. Often forced into already unstable jobs and careers, and often facing compounding bias because of race or age, the economic well-being of transgender people is being challenged today like never before. I am proud that the Legislature takes its responsibility to protect people from discrimination seriously. The Transgender Equal Rights Act is an excellent example of that.

Though there have been opponents to this legislation, the information they have been spreading across the state is false. Various opponents have claimed that the legislation will allow a heterosexual man dressed as a woman to enter women’s bathrooms and prey on women and children. That is illegal today and nothing in the Transgender Equal Rights Act changes that. Anyone who molests a woman or child is committing a crime.

In the years the cities of Boston and Cambridge have had a transgender rights law, there has not been one reported episode of a man dressed as a woman sexually assaulting a woman or child in a bathroom. The same is true in the 15 states and 130 other counties and cities that have laws protecting transgender people from discrimination.

In supporting the Transgender Equal Rights Act, my colleagues and I have ensured all people, regardless of their gender identity and expression, are given equal protection under the law. It is imperative that, as constituents of my district, residents of this Commonwealth and citizens of the United States, these people are given the same opportunities as you or I; to have a job, own a home and achieve their dreams.

For those who want to know more, I encourage you to visit a website containing brief videos of transgender people speaking from their unique perspective. The address is www.transpeoplespeak.org.  Another website, www.masstpc.org, also has helpful information.