Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said targeted harassment of Boston Children's Hospital for their transgender health unit "unfortunately isn't surprising in today's political environment," and said Boston in general has become a target for right-wing extremist hate.
"Boston has become a little bit of a target in terms of culture wars and white supremacist action" she said in an appearance on Boston Public Radio Thursday, referencing increased diversity at high levels of public office. "We represent what progress looks like, and how you can pretty quickly incorporate voices from all across our communities and that makes a difference."
The doctors who have been facing threats and harassment work in the Gender Multispecialty Service program, where they care for children and young adults with gender dysphoria, according to reporting in the Boston Globe.
"This is one of the most pre-eminent, most renowned medical institutions in the country doing what they do best, which is providing important, necessary care for the health and wellbeing of our community members," she said, noting that the targeting of the trans health unit is part of a broader mainstreaming of extremist hate.
Wu, who has dealt with targeted harassment herself and at her family home, also said that she attended a recent conference with mayors from across the city, where she became aware that "just about every woman mayor has had people outside their homes, or pretty disturbing threats leveled at them on a regular basis."
She responded to a caller who thought the city's response to recent demonstrations by neo-Nazi groups like Patriot Front and NSC-131 just called attention and heightened the visibility of those hate groups.
"The ideology and the steps that are between provoking a response to taking violent action to acting out in a major act of domestic terrorism, it's not that many steps in between," she said. "And we want our residents to be fully protected at all times."
At another point in her appearance on Boston Public Radio, Wu also discussed the city's desire to join a newly established state pilot program to allow 10 communities to ban fossil fuels.
"The technology is there, we're already building homes in Boston and doing larger projects that are electric and affordable, so those aren't mutually exclusive terms," she said. "In fact, we need to have affordability and sustainability go hand in hand — it is how we're going to reshape the market."
Ten cities and towns in Massachusetts filed to be part of the pilot, before Baker signed the climate bill into law that included the program; it's unclear whether another community would need to drop out or be deemed ineligible for Boston to be able to participate.
"We just want to make sure the legislative intent is maximized," said Wu, "and there’s no way you would maximize the impact of this without the state’s largest city being part."
According to Wu, three of the 10 communities haven't hit the threshold for affordable housing required by the new law, but it allows for an 18-month period for them to achieve that minimum requirement.
"So there's questions about if all of those 10 who each passed their local opt-ins before this law was even set, before they knew there would even be an affordable housing requirement, do all 10 of them stay in?"
Wu also called out the small scope of the pilot — just 10 communities of 351 in the state.
"For us to be looking at such a small percentage having the authority to make this work for their local municiaplity, is quite an incremental step."
