BOSTON — The progressive groups who put Mayor Michelle Wu in office are now organizing against her.

A trans-queer activist coalition called TQNC Boston is rallying its followers to Iannella Chamber on the fifth floor of City Hall this Tuesday, May 12 at 2 p.m. to demand the City Council reverse the cuts in Wu's FY27 budget — cuts that hit four of the offices Wu has spent years branding herself around: the Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement, the Office for Immigrant Advancement, the Commission for Persons with Disabilities, and the Office of Language and Communication Access.

The Instagram comments under the post tell the same story in plainer language.

"Wu is not who she makes herself out to be during election season," one commenter wrote.

"She shows up to our events but then cuts our funding? It makes absolutely no sense, what a shame Mayor Wu," wrote another.

The cuts

MASSDAILYNEWS

STAY UPDATED

Get Mass Daily News delivered to your inbox

Wu filed her $4.9 billion FY27 budget on April 8 and pitched it as "tough but necessary" belt-tightening. The Boston Globe led its coverage with the line "We don't have those resources anymore."

The cuts fell heaviest on the equity offices Wu built her brand around:

Office for Immigrant Advancement — slashed 42.8%, a roughly $1.8 million cut
Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement, Women's Advancement, Black Male Advancement, Fair Housing & Equity, Food Justice, Arts and Culture — discretionary grant programs cut more than 20% across the board
Office of Black Male Advancement — a specific $501,165 cut to non-personnel spending
Youth Employment & Opportunity — reduced 25.5%, roughly $6 million
Boston Public Schools bilingual instruction — 11% reduction
Special education — 109 paraprofessional positions and 25 support staff eliminated

$3.1 million for the cameras, $1.8 million cut quietly

Four weeks before Wu filed the budget that cut nearly half the immigrant office's funding, she stood at a podium announcing a new $3.1 million private-donor partnership for immigrant services. Trumpets, press release, photo ops.

Then the city budget came out and quietly took $1.8 million out of the same office's actual line item. The new private money does not net out the public cut.

The coalition fracture

City Councillor Julia Mejia has already organized a public speak-out on the cuts. Her line, as reported by the Dorchester Reporter, was direct: "We shouldn't be in a position where we're trying to restore funding that should not have been cut."

The trans-queer coalition, immigrant-rights groups, disability advocates, language-access advocates, the youth-jobs lobby, and the BPS bilingual-education community are all now mobilizing to overturn the same budget. It is, in practical terms, a vote of no confidence from Wu's own coalition.

What happens Tuesday

Under the 2021 charter amendment, the City Council can amend the mayor's proposed budget — including restoring funding to programs the mayor has cut, so long as the overall budget does not increase. The mayor can veto specific amendments, but a two-thirds Council vote can override.

The question Wu's progressive flank is now asking out loud is whether the mayor who campaigned as the most progressive in city history will fight to keep these offices whole — or whether the cut is the position.

'Wu is not who she makes herself out to be': Trans-queer activists organizing City Hall protest after mayor's budget axes LGBTQIA2S+ funding by more than 20%

Listen to Article