JUNE 1, 2026
Dear Cambridge and Somerville Constituents —
It's June so that means it's time to celebrate Pride Month in Cambridge, Somerville, and around the world!
As you probably know, Massachusetts was the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2003, and more recently, we in the legislature have taken numerous steps to support the LGBTQ+ community.
This year the House Budget included language requiring insurance coverage for all FDA-approved HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications without co-pays, deductibles, or prior authorizations. Last summer, the legislature preserved and protected access for individuals and practitioners engaging in personal health care activities in the Commonwealth, including gender-affirming care. Last term we passed the Parentage Act which updates the state’s parentage law so that it is clear, equitable, and provides legal protection for all families, including LGBTQ+ families and families formed through assisted reproduction. In previous terms, we passed a ban on "conversion therapy" for minors, first-in-the-nation legislation requiring licensed elder service providers to complete comprehensive LGBTQ+ care training, successfully advocated for a nonbinary gender marker on state licenses and IDs, and passed legislation that will allow minors to access PrEP.
Despite decades of hard-won progress, we are confronting renewed threats as the federal government moves to limit healthcare access, undermine LGBTQIA+ and racial justice advances, and strip away protections for transgender and nonbinary people nationwide. Since the beginning of this term, the federal government has made radical changes to the nation’s public health, research, and foreign policy infrastructure. It has dismantled policies developed over the past several decades that advanced equality and health equity for LGBTQIA+ people and other populations, and that advanced effective, science-based HIV and STI prevention and care. The ACLU is tracking nearly 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills under consideration in states around the country, including 5 in Massachusetts.
Despite these challenges, I remain hopeful. Queer folks across the Commonwealth and country have always fought back and found ways to thrive, to build community, and to love openly. This Pride Month, I join you in celebrating that legacy of resilience and recommit myself to defending it.
If you'd like an overview of some of the work ahead for the final three months of formal legislative sessions, read on for a legislative agenda that empowers the LGBTQIA+ community, those living with HIV/AIDS, and those who are vulnerable to healthcare access inequities.
My top three priorities
H.4746, The Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act
Today, technology has far outpaced privacy law. Data brokers and Big Tech are free to do almost anything they want with our personal information, including selling our cellphone location data on the open market. These practices endanger all of us, but especially vulnerable communities like immigrants, protesters, and people seeking and providing reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare. The Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act flips the script, giving all Massachusetts residents robust privacy rights in the digital age. Specifically, it bans the sale of our precise geolocation data and creates statutory limits on data collection and processing, ending the "anything goes" era of Big Tech surveillance once and for all. This bill has passed the Senate, has been reported favorable by the Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity. It's now in the House Ways and Means Committee. For my part, I have been advocating to House Leaders to take action on this topic, and they have committed to me that we will do so.
You may have seen this spring the House advanced a social media ban bill for children under age 14, with parental consent requirements for youth ages 14 and 15. While I support the goal of protecting young people online, the House bill did not adequately address serious concerns around data privacy. It also raised concerns about protecting LGBTQ+ youth, and the broad scope of the ban prompted questions about government overreach.
The bill relies on an age verification regime, but it does not incorporate data minimization principles. Data minimization means collecting only the minimum amount of information necessary, retaining it only as long as needed, and deleting it promptly afterward. This is the direction the European Union is taking on age verification, and Massachusetts could pursue innovative approaches such as third-party age tokens or zero-knowledge proofs. We should not be creating systems that allow Big Tech companies to collect and retain highly sensitive personal data that could later be exposed or misused. This risk is not hypothetical. Just this past fall, Discord implemented an age verification system, and shortly afterward its third-party vendor was hacked, resulting in the theft or exposure of sensitive identification documents — including driver’s licenses and passports — belonging to roughly 70,000 users.
It does not have to be this way in Massachusetts. We need strong, comprehensive data privacy legislation. I recently joined MassEquality and Fight for the Future to raise these concerns and encourage House leadership to work collaboratively with advocates on a better path forward. You can read about the press conference here, or watch an Instagram Reel from the event.
H.656/S.340, The Healthy Youth Act
Last term, we celebrated the first update to our school health education curriculum frameworks since 1999. These new standards are intended to be more LGBTQ+ inclusive and teach about bodily autonomy, mental and emotional health, dating safety, nutrition, sexually transmitted infections, and consent. These updates include different guidelines for four age groups: pre-K through second grade, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12. However, these frameworks are guidelines rather than specific mandated curricula, and districts may opt in if they wish.That’s why despite this positive step forward, the passage of the Healthy Youth Act is still so important so that these recommendations for districts are codified into law. As I have outlined in testimony to the Committee on Education, although young people aged 15 to 24 represent only a quarter of people having sex, more than two-thirds of chlamydia cases and almost half of gonorrhea cases occur in that age group in Massachusetts. Many young people are not receiving the tools they need to prevent STIs — just 52% of Massachusetts teens were taught how to use condoms in school in the year 2021. This is frankly outrageous and completely preventable. We need to shed our outdated, puritanical, and harmful views about sexuality and that starts with good quality, comprehensive health education in school. This bill has passed the Senate, has been reported out favorably by the Education Committee, and now sits in House Ways and Means.
H.2196/S.1393, An Act relative to preventing overdose deaths and increasing access to treatment
An Overdose Prevention Center (OPC) provides a space for people who use drugs to consume pre–obtained drugs under the supervision of healthcare professionals or other trained staff and may provide other related services including but not limited to needle exchange, overdose prevention, and referrals to treatment and other services. I’m proud to represent Cambridge and Somerville, two cities that are both seriously exploring site plans to host a prevention center. To mount the most effective response to the opioid epidemic we need to replace the all-too-common criminal legal response to substance use with a truly public health-based response, and OPCs would do just that. Both the House and Senate versions of this bill have been reported out favorably from the Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery and now sit in their respective Ways and Means Committees.
Additional Priorities
Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Reform
H.1834, An Act repealing homophobic and transphobic laws (Reps. Lewis and Montaño)
Revokes “Crime against nature” and “Unnatural and lascivious acts” chapters of the MA General Law. These laws are rooted in bigotry that should never have been codified in Massachusetts statute. As we strive to reduce stigma and fight for human rights for the LGBTQIA+ community, this harmful rhetoric has no place in public discourse let alone state law.
S.1505, An Act relative to LGBTQ health equity (Sen. Cyr)
Provides framework for collection of standardized, anonymous, and voluntary demographic information that contains questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), to better inform public health policy affecting the LGBTQIA+ community.
H.2656/S.1660, An Act to promote rehabilitation including guaranteed health, treatment, and safety for incarcerated LGBTQI+ People (Rep. Lewis and Sen. Cyr)
Unfortunately, homophobic, and transphobic violence is deeply embedded within the culture of incarceration. This bill seeks to reduce that harm by ensuring LGBTQI+ people have the right to safety, transparency, access to HIV prevention and treatment, and affirming programming. Additionally, this bill seeks to minimize the inappropriate and disproportionate use of solitary confinement for LGBTQI+ people.
H.1980, An Act to promote the health and safety of people in the sex trade (Rep. Sabadosa)
Decriminalizes independent adult sex work, while anti-trafficking laws remain, expunges marijuana and prostitution-related records, and modernizes Massachusetts’ anti-trafficking law to match the federal and international definition of human trafficking.
Seniors
H.4305/S.472, An Act relative to Massachusetts home care eligibility (Rep. Moran and Sen. Jehlen)
Waives the age requirement for access to Home Care services for those who are living with HIV/AIDS and experiencing effects of premature aging.
H.776 An Act relative to LGBT and HIV positive seniors in the commonwealth (Reps. Lewis and Luddy)
Expands the definition of “greatest social need” under the Older Americans Act of 1965 to explicitly include non-economic factors that impact an individual’s ability to perform daily activities or live independently. Ensures that racial and ethnic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and HIV status are recognized as contributing factors to social isolation and barriers to care. By incorporating these factors into state aging services programs, the bill strengthens protections and targeted support for LGBT and HIV-positive seniors who face higher rates of discrimination, stigma, and lack of culturally competent care.
Health Care
H.2501/S.1505, An Act relative to LGBTQ+ health disparities (Rep. Montaño, Sen. Cyr)
Requires the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and its departments to collect voluntary, confidential self-identification data on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) when providing direct services or administering federal programs. The goal is to identify and address health disparities affecting LGBTQ+ individuals by ensuring consistent data collection and analysis across state agencies. The bill mandates that the Office of
Health Equity develop guidelines and training programs for state agencies on collecting, handling, and utilizing this data while ensuring privacy protections and cultural competency. It also extends these data collection requirements to public schools and higher education institutions to assess and reduce disparities in education and healthcare outcomes for LGBTQ+ students sixteen years of age and older.
In addition to the above bills I will continue work to advance the policy recommendations of the Massachusetts LGBTQ Youth Commission which can be found here in their recently published Annual Report.
Are there any LGBTQ+ policy issues you want to discuss? Email me at [email protected] or call (617) 722-2230 to chat. Thanks for reading this far, and see you in Boston on June 6th for the Pride Parade, and Happy Pride!
