The Issue

Julia Beck has been removed from the Law and Policy Committee of Baltimore City Mayor’s so called “LGBTQ” Commission at the insistence of men because she dared to state that lesbians are female homosexual people. Julia was the only lesbian on the Committee.

What You Can Do

Email Catherine Pugh, Mayor of Baltimore City, to denounce the mistreatment of Julia Beck, and lesbians and women in general.

Copy regional media and City entities to ensure all relevant players understand the issue and are thus forewarned of their culpability if they fail to intervene.

Email Script

Dear Mayor Pugh,

You are leading a great city – one with many attractions, prestigious universities, world class sporting events, brilliantly creative colleges and museums, meaningful historical sites and a phenomenal location. Yet, by allowing the removal of Julia Beck from the Law and Policy Committee of your “LGBTQ” Commission, you are enabling a horrifying culture of hatred towards lesbians in the greater Baltimore community. This Spring, a local bar hosted a dance party which explicitly announced “terfs will be hung (sic) by their necks” and included a dummy hung in effigy. Following June’s Baltimore Pride Parade, men led a social media and newsprint campaign that targeted lesbians, including Julia, who joined the parade carrying banners and signs that celebrated female homosexuality. Now, within the last week, you supported discrimination against Julia, the sole lesbian on the Law and Policy Committee of your LGBTQ Commission, as you allowed her to be forced off the Committee by male members. I urge you, Mayor Pugh, to read her detailed account of the Committee meeting that was rife with discrimination, including blatantly stated discrimination against lesbians (“Lesbianism and transgenderism are incongruent political forces”). You are enabling this discrimination and divisiveness.

Lesbians, whether or not they are politically active, are the on the front lines of both fighting women’s oppression and promoting women’s liberation from oppression. In numerous countries, they are killed for refusing to comply with hetero-normativity or refusing to conform to cultural sex role stereotypes. In nearly all countries they are ridiculed and discriminated against. Don’t let this happen in Baltimore. When lesbians are not free to name themselves as female homosexuals who are exclusively same-sex attracted, when they are not free to say ‘no’ to men’s demands to redefine their sexuality and community spaces to include males – no woman is free to say ‘no’ to men in any situation or location.

Please do not let this targeted abuse continue; it harms Baltimore and it harms us all. Don’t reduce being a woman to being a person who acts out sex role stereotypes. Ensure the “L” is included and has a voice on your “LGBTQ” Commission.

Thank you,

[YOUR NAME]

Targets

Call the Mayor:

Phone Baltimore city: 410.396.3100

Ask for the Mayor’s office.

Once transferred you have three options, to push 1, 2 or 3. Push number 1 and leave message or talk to a staffer.

Phone Script:

I am calling to complain about Julia Beck’s forced removal from the Law and Policy Committee of Baltimore’s LGBTQ Commission. Julia Beck was the only lesbian on the Commission. To be inclusive, keep the L in LGBTQ and put another lesbian on the Committee.

My name is ________, my phone number is ___________. I am not a resident of Baltimore but “gender identity” ideology is a national issue and I encourage Mayor Pugh to stand for women and lead the way in inclusiveness.

Email: mayor@baltimorecity.gov

CC:

CouncilPresident@BaltimoreCity.gov, Zeke.Cohen@baltimorecity.gov, Brandon.Scott@baltimorecity.gov, Ryan.Dorsey@baltimorecity.gov, Bill.Henry@baltimorecity.gov, Isaac.Schleifer@baltimorecity.gov, Sharon.Middleton@baltimorecity.gov, Leon.Pinkett@baltimorecity.gov, Edward.Reisinger@baltimorecity.gov, John.Bullock@baltimorecity.gov, Edward.Reisinger@baltimorecity.gov, Eric.Costello@baltimorecity.gov, Robert.Stokes@baltimorecity.gov, Shannon.Sneed@baltimorecity.gov, MaryPat.Clarke@baltimorecity.gov, info@mdhumanities.org, casper@umbc.edu, csteele@umbc.edu, Newstips_@baltimoresun.com, trif.alatzas@baltsun.com, sam.davis@baltsun.com, atallent@baltsun.com, ecanzian@baltsun.com, andrew.green@baltsun.com, luke.broadwater@baltsun.com, ddonovan@baltsun.com, swallace@thedailyrecord.com, elfishel@baltsun.com, iduncan@baltsun.com, jean.marbella@baltsun.com, hmiller@baltsun.com, btimes@btimes.com, shuettner@thedailyrecord.com, tbaden@thedailyrecord.com, swallace@thedailyrecord.com, aroy@thedailyrecord.com, bsears@thedailyrecord.com, shuettner@thedailyrecord.com, tbaden@thedailyrecord.com, bsears@thedailyrecord.com, mbasara@hearst.com, newstips@wbaltv.com, newsdesk@wjla.com, jane@wnav.com, donna@wnav.com

Contact Forms

Visit Baltimore https://baltimore.org/contact-visit-baltimore

Maryland Commission on Human Rights http://www.doit.state.md.us/phonebook/level2offices.asp?AID=MCCR

Governor Larry Hogan https://governor.maryland.gov/contact-the-governor/