I am part of a transgender family and, even in liberal Cambridge, we have been directly affected by the Trump administration’s attempts to erase the existence of transgender people and limit access to transgender care. In the face of these attempts, a voice I have consistently seen proactively speak up in support of the transgender community is that of Rep. Marjorie Decker. I attended a town hall that Decker organized last month in partnership with Fenway Health where the attending group spoke about the challenges they faced and ongoing efforts to support the trans community. When Decker heard about problems our own family had in accessing care at the BCH Gems clinic, Decker spoke with the attorney general’s office to see what was being done in Massachusetts on the legal front to combat the Trump administration’s antitransgender executive orders and reached out to connect us with Fenway Health. I was therefore shocked and appalled by a biased and inflammatory Cambridge Day letter (“Despite this scary moment for rights of LGBTQ+, legislators needlessly OK’d antitrans amendment,” April 25).
I am in full support of news outlets keeping our politicians honest by reporting on the day-to-day actions at the state level, and we should absolutely call out injustice when we see it. Yet this opinion piece classified a standard voice vote as a “secret vote.” It discussed the procedural passage of a bill that effectively worked to kill an antitrans amendment as a vote against transgender rights. And the article solely discussed Decker’s voice vote, not mentioning the fact that I believe all of her democratic colleagues also voted for this amendment, including our other Cambridge representative. This letter also referenced Decker’s weekly email communication and purported differences in a posting from a former employee, but no efforts seem to have been made to actually contact Decker directly, a representative who, I will add, is someone who I have always found to be incredibly responsive to inquiries and open to discussions and dialogue.
We should be worried about state representatives who are introducing amendments that attack some of our most vulnerable constituents. But attacking legislators who are working tirelessly in support of the LGBTQ+ community, as Decker is, and publishing biased and inaccurate accounts of State House business, is unprofessional. In a world where we have a president who is attacking established news outlets as presenting “fake news,” quality news outlets must provide solid, unbiased, factual and complete information. Your website states “Our reporting on all platforms will be truthful, transparent and respectful; our facts will be accurate, complete and fairly presented.” So what happened here with this letter to the editor? I am incredibly disappointed to see the low standard of that April 25 letter. My confidence in your news outlet as a source of reputable information is sorely shaken. Shame on you for running this letter and shame on you for not correcting things once the article was run or apologizing to Decker after the damage had been done.
Kris Dickson, Fresh Pond Parkway, Cambridge
A stronger
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