Report highlights LGBTQ work in Mass.
As anti-LGBTQ legislation is introduced around the country — creating obstacles for youth seeking gender-affirming care, access to school sports, and LGBTQ books — Massachusetts is working to remain “a lighthouse” for uplifting LGBTQ youth, according to a new report from the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth.
Despite its progress, however, Massachusetts has significant work to do to tackle a rise in anti-LGBTQ activity within the Commonwealth, according to the commission’s leaders.
The commission announced its recommendations for the 2024 fiscal year at the State House Thursday, outlining steps the executive branch’s 21 agencies can take to address shortcomings in the state’s support system for young LGBTQ people and other marginalized communities. They include increasing programming for LGBTQ youth, improving resources, and putting a focus on the needs of people of color.
“Across the country, states are legislating discrimination, dehumanization, terrorization, and erasure of millions of queer, gender-expansive, and transgender youth,” said Noemi Uribe, co-chair of the commission. “At every level, and within every institution, the commission calls for the Commonwealth to say, ‘Not in Massachusetts.’”
But the report also noted that more than 43 Massachusetts school districts have seen anti-LGBTQ organizing in the past several years, with the rate of attacks increasing since 2022, according to information from advocacy group MassEquality. The attacks have included book bans, drag story hour protests, and harassment at school committee meetings, among other examples, the report said.
“The commission has serious concerns for the safety of LGBTQ youth, families, providers, librarians, and educators in Massachusetts with little activity occurring at the state government level to publicly address these incidents,” the report reads.
The commission’s 207-page report extensively details conclusions, policy recommendations, and calls to action taken from years of data and surveys of LGBTQ youth.
“While, on some mornings, you can take comfort to live in a state like Massachusetts, we absolutely cannot rest on our laurels,” said Senator Julian Cyr, former chair of the commission.
The recommendations, announced Thursday by Shaplaie Brooks, the commission’s executive director and co-editor of the report, focus on LGBTQ well-being in multiple sectors, including public health, juvenile justice, and education.
“Our privilege, upbringing, and, for many, our heteronormative lifestyle becomes our blind spots on that journey to freedom,” Brooks said. “How do we sharpen our vision? How can we focus deeply [to] serve youth in the Commonwealth? We follow the child.”
Many of the proposals focus on shoring up resources and education for people who support LGBTQ youth on a day-to-day basis to keep up with increasing demand for resources and help.
“In FY23, technical assistance and training requests have exceeded our capacity,” Brooks said. “Requests for training by schools have more than tripled in only two years.”
Among the recommendations to meet the demand: Increase training for school staff and family liaisons to help them better promote family engagement and acceptance, pass the Healthy Youth Act to provide age-appropriate and medically accurate sex education, and improve interagency collaboration and programming to address the gaps in service provision for all youth.
The report also called on state officials to take actions that will make long-term and systemic improvements. Recommendations include establishing an independent foster care review office outside of the Department of Children and Families to ensure all cases receive impartial reviews; mandating standardized sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression data collection across agencies; and improving access to state IDs for youth experiencing homelessness.
Thursday’s event also included a swearing-in ceremony for new members of the commission and individual awards for advancing equity and justice.
Alex Nugent, a 17-year-old recipient of a student leader award, said Massachusetts’ reputation as a safe haven for LGBTQ people can “be used almost as a way for people to ignore” anti-LGBTQ incidents that still happen here.
“It’s easy for people to not have to pay attention, because it’s not like big alarm lights the way it is in other states,” said Nugent, a student at ConcordCarlisle High School. “We have to first help people see that there is still a problem because other problems are more glaringly obvious.”
But, Nugent added, it’s important that the commission strives to continue to listen to student voices and work to overcome the “unnecessary amount of bureaucracy that comes with being in any government agency.”
“We will tell you what we need. We just need to feel like you’re listening,” Nugent said.