Out Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D) appointed Giselle Byrd to the state’s Commission on the Status of Women on August 20, but it was only in the last week that the right took notice. After social media posts, right-wing hit pieces filled with transphobic and misogynistic language, and one state senator piling on, the commission says Byrd is now receiving death threats.

“[Commissioner Giselle Byrd] was the subject of a particularly vicious online attack that incited hateful language and violent rhetoric against one of our own,” the MA Commission on the Status of Women (MASSCSW) said in a statement. “We stand in outrage with our fellow Commissioner Byrd and remain committed to protecting the safety of not only our state and regional commissioners, but of every marginalized individual threatened by violence both online and in person.”

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MASSCSW, established in 1998, is a group of 19 volunteers who are appointed by the Governor, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Caucus of Women Legislators. The mission statement makes it clear that “The Commission represents and recognizes all women, regardless of their age, race, color, creed, abilities, language, socio-economic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, or gender assigned at birth.”

Giselle Byrd is the commission’s first trans woman of color and is the executive and artistic director of the Theater Offensive, whose mission is “liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color.”

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Byrd testified at a Joint Committee hearing on October 29, supporting the passage of S.2155, which would establish a commission on the status of transgender people in the state. That comes at a time when Fenway Health, a non-profit LGBTQ+ health center based in the state, has stopped offering puberty blockers and HRT for those under 19. At the hearing, she noted that she was the commission’s “first transgender woman of color.”

On November 3, the Substack account ma4women posted an article from MASSCSW, calling Byrd “the first trans identifying man of color on the commission.” The comments on the post are filled with hateful language.

That language is echoed in the headline and body of an article from The Heartlander, which MASSCSW’s statement cites as the source of the hate that has “proliferated widely throughout the right-wing media pundit circle.” That circle includes Libs of TikTok, an account run by anti-LGBTQ+ troll Chaya Raichik, which has an extensive online reach.

Massachusetts State Senator Alyson Sullivan-Almeida (R) also joined in on the attacks. “Out of the nearly three and a half million biological girls and women in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Gov. Healey couldn’t identify a qualified biological woman to appoint to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women?” she told the Boston Herald, adding, “Why on earth would the governor think anyone but a biological woman would make any sense!”

The Governor’s office defended Byrd from the attacks. “Giselle Byrd is a highly respected leader in the Boston arts community who is committed to the advancement of women,” said spokesperson Karissa Hand.

While the foul language and death threats appear to have come from right-wing sources, there is no Democrat monopoly on the decision to include a trans woman on the MASSCSW. The first trans woman on the commission, lawyer Sara Schnorr, was appointed in 2016 by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.

There is no record of a similar backlash at the time, perhaps because it occurred before a rise in anti-trans rhetoric. Baker went on to re-appoint Schnorr in 2018.

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