MADISON – In honor of Pride Month, LGBT members of the Wisconsin State Legislature – which includes Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit), Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee), Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville), Rep. Marisabel Cabrera (D-Milwaukee), and Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) –introduced a set of bills today as a part of the Equality Agenda. The package focuses on promoting equality and improving safety for LGBT Wisconsinites. 

The Equality Agenda includes six bills that will ban conversion therapy, prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender identity or expression, eliminate the gay and trans “panic” defense, create a transgender equality task force, and update Wisconsin’s statutes and constitution to recognize marriage equality. It also includes joint resolutions that recognize June 2019 as LGBT Pride Month, recognize the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, and proclaim November 20^th as Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“As an out gay man, I am proud to stand by my fellow LGBT legislators today to present the Equality Agenda in honor of Pride Month,” Rep. Spreitzer said. “Some of these bills have already gotten bipartisan support, and we are optimistic that we can build on that and send these bills to Governor Evers’s desk.”

Rep. Spreitzer is the lead author on two of the bills introduced today. The Marriage and Family Equality Act recognizes marriage equality by making references in the statutes to spouses gender neutral. The bill also recognizes legal parentage for couples of all genders. The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act protects transgender Wisconsites by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender identity or gender expression.

“This package highlights the continued importance of equality for LGBT people in our state. We are proud to introduce these bills during June to celebrate Pride Month,” Rep. Spreitzer said. “I am grateful to the members of the LGBT Caucus and to our colleagues Reps. Melissa Sargent (D-Madison), Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), and Amanda Stuck (D-Appleton) for their work. I am also grateful to the members of the LGBT community who joined the press conference today to share their stories about the need for the Equality Agenda.”

” As a state, it is our duty to create a healthy, safe, and welcoming community for all of our friends and neighbors,” Rep. Sargent wrote in a Facebook post. “Wisconsin must do more to support transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals, lift up their voices, and to hear and address their concerns about the egregious disparities that are taking place within our state. “