Catholic Action League Blasts Boston City Council Vote on Question 3 – Transgender Law’s ‘Incitement’ Provision Could Threaten Free Speech

News Release, Sept. 19, 2018

Contact: C. J. Doyle; (617) 524-6309; catholicactionleague@gmail.com

Catholic Action League Criticizes Boston City Council Vote on Question 3

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts is criticizing the Boston City Council for its resolution, passed earlier today, urging a yes vote on Question 3, which would uphold a 2016 act making so-called gender identity a protected category in Massachusetts civil rights law pertaining to public accommodations.

In July, 2016, Governor Charlie Baker signed into law Senate Bill 2407, An Act Relative to Transgender Anti-Discrimination. The law authorizes the Commonwealth to prosecute, fine and imprison businessmen and professionals who refuse to recognize men who claim to be women as women and women who claim to be men as men. According to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and Attorney General Maura Healey, the law could, in some circumstances, apply to churches. Under the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 272, Section 98, which prohibits “incitement” to discrimination, freedom of expression could also be restricted.

Question 3 is a referendum on the repeal of the measure.

The Catholic Action League called the City Council resolution “a triumph of progressivist ideology over common sense, moral sanity, and biological reality.”

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “SB 2407 is a coercive and punitive measure which imposes sanctions on citizens who refuse to participate in the lie that persons can, through some subjective process, change their gender. Contrary to the assertions of Councilor Ayanna Pressley, adhering to the perennial wisdom of Western Civilization—reflected in science, legal tradition, and moral understanding—that gender is immutable, does not constitute hatred, and should not be penalized as discrimination. By today’s vote, the Boston City Council has demonstrated, once again, that it prefers pandering to policy making.”