‘Free Speech Bus’ draws protesters
Anti-transgender campaign visits Boston on U.S. tour
BOSTON (AP) — Anti-transgender activists are being met with protests as they drive through cities in the northeastern United States in a big, orange bus emblazoned with the words "boys are boys" and "girls are girls."
The "Free Speech Bus" parked in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston on Thursday morning, drawing more than two dozen protesters holding signs and chanting, among other things, "No hate. No fear. Trans people are welcome here."
Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh, surrounded by dozens of supporters, raised a flag recognizing the transgender community after the bus briefly stopped in front of City Hall.
Gregory Mertz, U.S. director of CitizenGO, the Madrid, Spain-based group that's behind the bus tours, said organizers are pushing back against laws and policies accommodating transgender people.
"There's an agenda and movement that's saying it's OK for a boy to be a girl and that you can use whichever restroom you want," he said. "We think that's very harmful."
The bus's message is simply stating the "biological reality" that humans are "binary, sexually complementary creatures," said Joseph Grabowski, a spokesman for the National Organization for Marriage who was among a handful of supporters riding on the bus.
The full text splashed across the bus's exterior reads: "It's Biology: Boys are boys . and always will be. Girls are girls . and always will be. You can't change sex. Respect for all."
Protesters said the message is overly simplistic.
"It assumes that our identities are the sum of what's between our legs," said Michelle Tat, a transgender woman from Boston helping lead the chants with a bright pink megaphone. "I'd argue that it's more about our lived experiences and our genders. Biology gives us what we are born with, but it doesn't make us who we are."
The bus message may appear benign, but it only serves to fuel rising hatred and violence toward the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community, said Mason Dunn, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, which helped coordinate Thursday's protests.