As someone who spends about six hours a week campaigning for the Yes on 3 campaign, I thank you for your editorial endorsing us ( “Stand up for equality: Vote yes on 3,” Oct. 18). I was introduced suddenly into the transgender community when my child informed me they were making a transition. It was rocky, and I understand why others are still confused and even scared. Your calm exposition helps establish healthy attitudes.

Arlington

Despite nod to Question 3, Baker’s support for LGBTQ issues has lagged

This month, a Globe article drew attention to Governor Baker’s supposed support for the LGBTQ community through his endorsement of Question 3, which would uphold current antidiscrimination protections for transgender individuals.


Although Baker’s support for this ballot question is undoubtedly a progressive victory, progressive Massachusetts residents cannot forget Baker’s track record on LGBTQ issues. This year, he headlined a fund-raising event for state Representative Jim Lyons, a noted anti-LGBTQ zealot, and has supported Geoff Diehl, a Trump-loving US Senate candidate who has historically voted against transgender rights. Baker’s running mate for lieutenant governor, Karyn Polito, famously led the charge to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. And while Baker himself may now be vocally supporting transgender protections, he signed the original antidiscrimination bill in 2016 behind closed doors, surely to avoid being seen as a proponent of transgender rights.

As Nov. 6 approaches, we must remember who our true allies are. With more and more anti-LGBTQ legislation looming at a federal level, we cannot risk reelecting a governor whose inconsistent track record puts the entire LGBTQ community in danger.

Naomi Forman-Katz

Northampton

Trump would only harm transgender people by trying to erase them

Re “From D.C., a threat to transgender identity” (Page A1, Oc. 22): President Trump likes kings, so perhaps he could learn a lesson from King Canute, who demonstrated to a bevy of obsequious courtiers that he, the king, could not rule the tides. Denying the nonbinary realities of both gender and biological sex, Trump and religious fundamentalists inside and outside of his administration assert that they can make transgender and other nongender-conforming people simply disappear by legal fiat. Of course they can’t. But what they can do is increase discrimination, stoke hatred, and harm people’s health, access to health care, and well-being. The Trump administration’s malicious and ignorant attack on transgender rights must be sunk.


Nancy Krieger

Boston

The writer is a professor of social epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

President encounters a loophole

Trump hasn’t thought this through. If he defines transgender people out of existence, he can’t ban them from military duty.

George Mitchell

Hyde Park