City Councilor Kendra Lara (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill) says she's fed up with what she considers the "homophobic and transphobic rhetoric" from Councilors Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, downtown), Michael Flaherty (at large) and Erin Murphy (at large) in the days after first responders found a dead man in a Mary Ellen McCormack apartment.
In a statement yesterday, Lara said:
As elected officials, we are responsible for handling these tragedies with the respect and dignity our constituents deserve. Instead, in the days following the incident, I saw from three members of the Boston City Council behavior that lacked empathy and respect for the facts and stoked the kind of homophobic and transphobic rhetoric that puts our most vulnerable residents at risk. Our colleagues have actively misgendered the trans women involved, calling them "men in wigs." In direct contradiction with the statements of the Boston Police, they've miscategorized the conditions of a constituent's home and spread stories about "sex toys and drugs" that are unsubstantiated to date, furthering the false right-wing narrative that our trans siblings are sexual deviants who our children need protecting from.
Although our colleagues voted favorably for a resolution celebrating Pride Month, they have shown no respect for this community, opting instead for scandalizing a tragedy to garner press attention and political points with the extreme right in our City under the guise of public safety.
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Comments
I know you are, but what am I?
By Gary C
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 9:53am
Sounds like she is also "scandalizing a tragedy to garner press attention."
Check your ears; she is
By CH
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 10:00am
Check your ears; she is obviously and clearly scandalizing the words of her colleagues, not the tragedy itself.
There's a Big Difference
By Pete X
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 10:10am
Councilor Lara calling out public figures for irresponsibly stoking transphobia is not the same thing as public figures irresponsibly stoking transphobia.
Pete X - you are right on
By anon
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 10:15am
Pete X - you are right on the money!
Follow the money
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 12:20pm
straight to TurtleBoy Sports
come on man
By berkleealum
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 1:04pm
Lara is responding to unfounded statements and accusations by her fellow council people.
Isn’t BFD standing by their statements?
By robo
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 1:15pm
Hell hath frozen over when uhub is standing by what the police say
Are they?
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 1:50pm
The BFD captain isn't making any subsequent statements. He hasn't retracted anything but that isn't the same thing.
Isn’t that the same thing?
By robo
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 2:48pm
He’d be a moron to sit there and say BPD is wrong. By not retracting anything, he’s saying he stands-by what he said. He’s got nothing to gain by refuting BPD
What did BPD have to gain by
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 3:21pm
What did BPD have to gain by contradicting him? Turtle fail is smearing the police officer now.
Bullshit
By Bostoneer
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 1:06pm
This is bullshit. And you know it.
What?
By John
Mon, 07/03/2023 - 5:09pm
No she's not, she is objecting to people lying in order to stoke fear and hatred of trans people.
The hysteria over this incident is strange.
By Jiggles
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 10:30am
The fire captain who filed the initial report (and was on scene before BPD arrived) has an exemplary record. I believe he was named firefighter of the year in the recent past. I don't know where the sex toys and drugs angle came from, but it's apparent that the individuals in the apartment were not cooperative with the firefighters, and were likely concerned about fallout from the fact that their friend was using drugs and overdosed in an apartment where children were present.
This is a terrible story, and children have been removed from potentially unfit parents. The sideshow woke v. centrist drama is basically doing pr cover for parents who placed their kids in an unsafe environment.
BPD vs BFD
By anon
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 11:12am
This is less a fight about transphobia and more about which mandated reporter was telling the truth about this incident.
If they weren’t LGBTQ+…
By EC
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 12:59pm
Would she make similar accusations? The facts, as initially presented made the situation appear to be particularly grim, and that is what people were responding to. The weren’t responding based on the gender identity or sexual orientation of the occupants. They were responding based on what they were told by first responders—they weren’t making up information. She’s highjacked the response in order to make it about something other than it was. Let’s calm down and wait until first responders’ camera footage shows the situation as it appeared, untouched, before others appeared on the scene. Ed Flynn is my City Councilman and is not at all anti-LGBT. In fact, he is supportive of the LGBT community.
Bullshit
By Bostoneer
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 1:06pm
Bullshit.
do you just have really bad recall?
By berkleealum
Thu, 06/29/2023 - 1:06pm
or are you flattening all context in order to warp the events into the shape of your preferred narrative?
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