BOSTON — The organizer of the Mayor Wu-funded "Trans Period Pride" event at the Boston Public Library finally broke her silence this week — to call everyone who asked a question about it an extremist.
Sasha Goodfriend, executive director of the Massachusetts National Organization for Women (Mass NOW), gave her first on-record statement on the event Friday — not to local press, but to Them, a Condé Nast LGBT magazine.
Sasha Goodfriend, executive director of Mass NOW. Photo: Amber Leilani Photography / Mass NOW.
“At a time when extremist voices are trying to shame, erase, and isolate transgender people, events like Trans Period Pride are about building community, dignity, and access to essential care,” Goodfriend told Them. “The backlash only reinforces why this work — and visible solidarity — matters.”
What she is defending
The Trans Period Pride event, set for June 17 at the Boston Public Library Copley Branch, was billed on its own flyer as a “consciousness-raising discussion” on “trans menstruators,” with a free catered dinner and free period underwear for attendees. Mass NOW was the lead sponsor. Wu’s Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement was listed on the flyer as a partial funder.
The Trans Period Pride flyer for the June 17 event at the Boston Public Library Copley Branch. Flyer: Mass NOW.
MDN covered the event on May 27. The story went viral the same week. Fox News picked it up. The Instagram posts promoting the event had their comments switched off shortly after.
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The “extremist voices”
The actual content of the “extremist” pushback Goodfriend now wants to define herself against, drawn from the Instagram comments under the event flyer itself:
“I just looked it up — you got a free meal and a free pair of period underwear (which is not cheap), and I also looked up who’s paying for it. Unreal. But here we are laying off teachers.”
“I’m sure tax payer $$ spent on this nonsense.”
Boston residents asking why the city is paying for a catered party while school budgets get squeezed. Goodfriend’s word for them: extremist.
The Mayor’s office
Mayor Michelle Wu, whose Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement co-sponsored the Trans Period Pride event.
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Wu’s Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement is the same shop MDN broke a story on in April for partnering with the nonprofit OUTNewcomers to offer “LGBTQ+ migrants” up to $500 in vouchers for yoga, massage, and gym memberships.
The OUTnewcomers promo, advertising $250-$500 vouchers for “LGBTQ+ migrants in Boston” redeemable for yoga, peer support, and gym memberships. Image: OUTnewcomers.
After MDN’s reporting went national, Wu’s office reversed course and called the program “inappropriate.” The same $920,702-a-year office is also co-hosting Monday’s Pride flag raising at City Hall — on the same program as a free monkeypox vaccine clinic.
The pattern
Goodfriend did not address whether free period underwear and a catered dinner are the highest and best use of city LGBT funding. She did not address why the comments on Mass NOW’s Instagram had to be turned off. She did not publish the budget for the event.
She addressed the critics.
Who are, by her account, extremists.
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