H1728 would effectively wipe out a community’s ability to monitor or control the sorts of activities going on “next door.” While communities or property owners can ban smoking, they will not be able to ban wild behaviors involving protected sexual perversions parading as “gender expression.” If a property is next to a school and tenants wish to rent who “express” their gender through “swinging parties,” whips and chains, sex for sale, or public nudity -- the landlord will not be able to say no. It will be up to the “transgender” individual to decide how he needs to express himself in his (even rented) home or commercial property.

Look at the ads for “she-male” prostitutes (in the Boston Phoenix) whose “gender expression” includes sequential, anonymous visitors to their apartments, and who often express their gender loudly and violently through BDSM practices. They can rent any place they choose if H1728 is passed. (The only exception in the law, Ch. 151B section 4, where an owner may discriminate is for “a single dwelling unit in a two family dwelling, the other occupancy unit of which is occupied by the owner as his residence.”)

“Adult” stores catering to transsexuals and cross-dressers will not be stoppable. Local zoning regulations, if attempting to block them, will surely be challenged as discriminatory. No exemptions are built into the proposed law, no matter who the surrounding owners, tenants, or users may be -- including schools, playgrounds, churches, family neighborhoods.

Section 19 even says that no one (not just realtors or property managers) may publicly object in any way to an individual’s right to buy or rent apartment/condo-type dwellings on the basis of their “gender identity or expression.” This would include a letter to a newspaper, or a posting on a web site or blog.

This new law would have a profound effect on the business climate in Massachusetts. Watch for a continuing exodus by businesses from the state if H1728 passes.