I don't know that legislation can give people courage. What I do know is that making it explicit will, in itself, help to educate people that they do have rights.
To give you an example—I'm afraid I don't have the statistics on me right now—we conducted a survey of schools across the country. What we saw in schools was that in schools or school boards that had explicit policies that included gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, rates of victimization went down. LGBT students—and teachers and parents—were more comfortable and more willing to report because they believed support would be there for them when they did.
I'm sorry I don't have those exact statistics on me—