Skip to content  Maryland nondiscrimination bill marks
potentially life-saving advance  April 7, 2011  By Mara
Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender
Equality, and Lisa Mottet, Transgender Civil Rights Project
Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force   An important
thing we have learned from Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of
the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, that our
organizations released in February, is the high human cost of
discrimination. It is no exaggeration to say that discrimination
is literally killing transgender people. In addition to the
shocking rates of discrimination reported, there were
unconscionable amounts of violence perpetrated against
transgender people. For the many who have lost a job or become
homeless, rates of HIV infection, drug and alcohol abuse, and,
ultimately, suicide attempts, skyrocketed.  What is the
historical perspective?  The first state passed a trans-
inclusive nondiscrimination law in 1993, the second in 2001, and
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