By Bridgid Chandler, news correspondent 

Supporters of a ballot measure protecting transgender people from discrimination held a rally in Copley Square on Sunday to start the final push to pass the referendum 50 days before the election.

Question 3 on the ballot will ask voters whether they would like to keep a bill passed in 2016 protecting people from discrimination in public places based on their gender identity.

“Massachusetts was the birthplace of marriage equality and it must be the firewall against the spread of discrimination,” said Kasey Suffredini, the co-chair and president of strategy for Freedom for All Americans, a group working to uphold the bill. “If we lose here, we will see this fight in every state across the country. So we’ve got to win this one for our commonwealth, and we’ve got to win this one for our country.”

The organization opposing the bill, Keep Massachusetts Safe, calls the bill “the Bathroom Law” on its website and argues that allowing transgender people to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identities would threaten women and children.

“This bill would endanger the privacy and safety of women and children in public bathrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, and other intimate places (such as common showers), opening them to whomever wants to be there at any given time, and also to sexual predators who claim “confusion” about their gender as a cover for their evil intentions,” the group’s website says. A study conducted by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law  found that the Massachusetts law “is not related to the number or frequency of criminal incidents in these spaces.”

Keep MA Safe did not answer questions about the referendum when contacted by the News.

The Yes on 3 campaign asserts that there is no evidence that the law, which has been in place for nearly two years, has caused violence in public places. Gina Scaramella, executive director of Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, an organization that provides free and confidential support and services to survivors of sexual violence, addressed these claims at the rally.

“As an expert on sexual violence-related public health and safety, I can tell you with certainty, protecting transgender people has zero negative consequences on women and children,” she said, to cheers from the crowd. “We can say that especially given the fact that there are many women and children who are transgender.”

This summer, members from Keep Massachusetts Safe collected about 50,000 signatures to get Question 3, which asks voters whether they would like to uphold the anti-discrimination bill, on the ballot in their hopes to remove the bill.

The rally included speakers from the business, religious and activist communities in support of Yes on 3. Those in attendance included Rachel Rollins, the Democratic candidate for Suffolk County district attorney; Boston City Councilor Matt O’Malley; and Alexandra Chandler, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 3rd District and the first openly transgender candidate for Congress in Massachusetts.

“What is at stake in November, very simple, is a question about our character, a question about the promise of our future,” said Representative Joe Kennedy III, Democrat of the 4th District, “and will we, as Massachusetts, live up to that challenge and see this as an opportunity to show the rest of the country that here, everyone counts. We see you. We hear you, we will fight for you day in and day out and here you are welcome.”

Ashton Paulino, a transgender teenage boy, then spoke to the crowd, which filled about half of Copley Square.

“I can’t imagine what I would do if restaurants, stores or movie theaters felt empowered to discriminate against me because of who I am,” Paulino said.

The crowd was made up of people of all ages from the LGBTQ+ community as well as their friends, family members, and community in the effort to keep the bill.

“I am here to stand up for transgender rights in Massachusetts and to increase visibility and awareness,” said Noah O’Leary, a 2013 Northeastern graduate.

The importance of this bill was expressed by the crowd through signs and conversations. One sign read “History has its eyes on you” another read “Non-binary, not afraid, not done fighting.”

“Everyone deserves the same human rights,” said Ariel Sussman, a spokesperson for Yes on 3. “If we show the rest of the country we are above hate and intolerance, the rest of the country should follow suit.”

The rally concluded with an enthusiastic “Yes on 3!” chant.

“It’s not about politics,” Suffredini said. “It’s about people. It’s about transgender people like me.”

Julia Preszler contributed to this report.