MassEquality urges governor to spare LGBT programs from budget axe

As Gov. Deval Patrick prepares to make emergency budget cuts later this week due to falling state revenues, MassEquality last week urged him to spare funds for programs that serve the LGBT community.

In an Oct. 3 letter to the governor, MassEquality Executive Director Marc Solomon asked that the governor preserve state funding for the Safe Schools Program, the LGBT Aging Project, LGBT domestic violence programs, and HIV/AIDS funding. "These programs are of great importance to our community and cuts would have a detrimental impact in these difficult times."

The governor is expected to announce cuts to the 28.2 billion state budget on Oct. 15.

Asked on Oct. 4 whether LGBT programs would be on the chopping block, Patrick acknowledged, "we have some really miserable decisions in front of us." He added, "we're going to make them as much as possible continuing the investments in the initiatives of this administration."

"I'm not going to make any promises today because we're still working our way through all that," the governor also said. "But we're looking for hundreds of millions of dollars in spending reductions and that's going to affect services and people. It's the fact of the matter."

This fiscal year's budget included funding increases for a range of LGBT programs, which had suffered from cuts or level funding during the administration of former governor Mitt Romney, who was largely hostile to the concerns of the LGBT community. Solomon noted as much in his letter to the governor. "Across the board, we have been working our hardest to rebuild programs to serve our community after Governor Mitt Romney's cynical, politically-motivated efforts to dismantle programs to protect LGBT people in the Commonwealth," Solomon wrote.