---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act relative to making the charter of the city of Chicopee gender neutral"
description: "Substituted, on motion of Mr. Walsh of Peabody, for a bill with the same title (House, No. 2244) [Local Approval Received]. September 18, 2025."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "194th"
identifier: "H 4542"
citation: "Massachusetts H 4542 (194th)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Thomas P. Walsh"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2025-09-18"
last_action: "2026-04-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1e99c63e-c9dc-4e86-9644-c9fa7558ba39"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H4542"
source_hash: "c1c597930edc725a4ed0397a52dc98f630cf38fac6e17168dff40bac77737190"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ma"]
---

# Massachusetts H 4542 (194th) — An Act relative to making the charter of the city of Chicopee gender neutral

Substituted, on motion of Mr. Walsh of Peabody, for a bill with the same title (House, No. 2244) [Local Approval Received]. September 18, 2025.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H4542.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Thomas P. Walsh — primary (person)
- Jacob R. Oliveira — cosponsor (person)
- Shirley B. Arriaga — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-09-18** Substituted for H2244
- **2025-09-18** Passed to be engrossed `passage`
- **2025-09-22** Read, rules suspended, read second and ordered to a third reading `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2026-03-30** Taken out of the Orders of the Day
- **2026-03-30** Read third (title changed) and passed to be engrossed `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-04-02** Enacted `passage`
- **2026-04-02** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2026-04-10** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 56 of the Acts of 2026 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1e99c63e-c9dc-4e86-9644-c9fa7558ba39`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).