The Boston City Council strongly reaffirmed its support for the local transgender community days after the governor’s appointment of a trans woman to the state Commission on the Status of Women drew blowback in conservative circles. The Council voted unanimously Wednesday to establish a transgender and queer community advisory council within the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA2S+ and to approve a resolution recognizing Nov. 20 as a transgender day of remembrance in the city in memory of those whose lives were lost to anti-transgender violence. In attendance for the day’s Council meeting were Giselle Byrd, the trans woman whose appointment to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women sparked controversy and death threats this week and Kim Hester, who accepted a citation on behalf of her sister Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman from Massachusetts whose murder led to the annual day of remembrance in 1999. “There is a violent and harmful rhetoric that has been propelled even by legislators in this very commonwealth, which claims to be a sanctuary,” Byrd said. “Sanctuaries cannot be glass houses. They must have a strong impenetrable foundation, for if they do not, they will forever be broken.” Byrd said there have been “escalated threats to my life” since her appointment to the Mass Commission on the Status of Women, with one response being, “nothing a rope and a tree can’t fix,” which she said has remained fixed in her mind. But she spoke of how her status in the community resulted in a different outcome than other transgender people who have been subject to threats in the past. Byrd is the executive director of The Theater Offensive in Boston, the first Black transgender woman to lead a regional theater, per her bio, and she was invited by the Council to speak on the resolution and ordinance prior to the day’s votes. “It is a privileged space to be in,” Byrd said, “because there are Black trans women around this world who did not get phone calls when someone threatened their lives. They simply were unheard, and then they were gone.” The Herald reported that at least one state legislator, Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida (R-7th Plymouth), was unhappy with Gov. Maura Healey’s decision to appoint Byrd to the Commission on the Status of Women. “Why on earth would the governor think anyone but a biological woman would make any sense?” Sullivan-Almeida told the Herald Sunday. “This appointment makes no sense.” Councilors Julia Mejia, Liz Breadon the first openly gay woman elected to the Council and Henry Santana had initially proposed an ordinance that would create a transgender and queer oversight commission in the city, but opted to pivot to retooled language that would establish a community advisory council within the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA2S+, following concerns from the Wu administration. The Wu administration had stated during a committee hearing last June that “establishing a new oversight commission as proposed could overlap with existing work or strain limited resources,” according to a committee report prepared by Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, chair of the Government Operations Committee. Councilors and the Wu administration compromised on a similar transgender and LGBTQIA2S+ oversight role that would operate within an existing office at City Hall, and be “intended to complement, rather than compete with, the city’s existing work,” per Coletta Zapata’s report. The ordinance was tweaked during a Council hearing earlier this month that would shift the functions of the Commission from a “citywide oversight and monitoring body to an advisory and community-engagement council” focused on supporting the programs and priorities of the mayor’s LGBTQ+ office, the report states. The Council, per the amended ordinance, would meet monthly. Within the Council would be an 11-member steering committee appointed by the mayor with six appointments made based on Council nominations that would meet quarterly and produce a yearly report to advance the status of trans and queer residents. “Everyone had the same intent through this process, to strengthen and support representation at a time when the federal government is actively targeting and trying to dismantle resources and protections, and it made this work even more urgent,” Coletta Zapata said. Mejia, who also put forward the resolution for the transgender day of remembrance, addressed her remarks directly at the Trump administration. “To the federal administration, if you are listening, we are standing proud, we’re standing loud, and we’re standing unapologetically to let everybody know that trans rights are civil rights, and we’re here to fight alongside you,” Mejia said. The Council in March passed a non-binding symbolic resolution declaring Boston a sanctuary city for the transgender and LGBTQ+ community, but transgender woman and activist Chastity Bowick spoke of the importance of codifying protections for that community ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the ordinance. “I stand before you, not just as an activist, but as a Black transgender woman whose very existence is under federal attack while politicians in Washington strip away our protections and while children face unprecedented hostility,” Bowick said. “Boston can choose something different today. “We can choose to be the city that doesn’t just talk about inclusion. We can be the city that codifies it, protects it, and fights for it.”.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/19/boston-city-council-backs-lgbtq-community-amid-blowback-to-governors-trans-woman-appointment/
Boston City Council backs LGBTQ community amid blowback to governor’s trans woman appointment
