BOSTON — Massachusetts state senators have quietly tucked $260,000 of taxpayer money into the FY2027 state budget for the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women — the same Boston nonprofit that organizes the annual "Trans Period Pride" gathering at the Boston Public Library.
The cash moves through Senate Budget Amendment #516, championed by Mass NOW and adopted during the upper chamber's three-day budget debate on Senate bill S.4 that wrapped May 21, when state senators voted unanimously to pass a $63.4 billion fiscal-year 2027 spending bill. The amendment is meant, in Mass NOW's own language, to "sustain our menstrual equity program."
The Senate budget now moves into conference committee, where House and Senate negotiators reconcile differences before sending a final bill to Governor Maura Healey. The House version already carries a parallel earmark — Amendment #1705 — at the same $260,000 figure. Conference committees almost never strip line items that survived both chambers, meaning the Mass NOW money is effectively headed to Healey's desk by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.
What 'Trans Period Pride' is
The phrase is not editorial framing — it is Mass NOW's own brand. The Boston nonprofit, run by executive director Sasha Goodfriend, has hosted Trans Period Pride at the Boston Public Library for three years running, co-organized with the Massachusetts Trans Political Coalition.
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The 2026 edition, originally scheduled for June 17, 6 to 8 p.m. at the BPL's Copley Square central branch, was billed on the Mass NOW event flyer as a "consciousness-raising discussion on menstrual equity and the experiences of trans menstruators." The same flyer promised "catered dinner and free period underwear" for all attendees. Listed supporters included Mayor Michelle Wu's Office of LGBTQ Advancement, the LGBTQ youth nonprofit BAGLY, and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.
After days of international outrage, the Boston Public Library cancelled the event and pulled the listing from its public calendar. Goodfriend told reporters the gathering itself has not been canceled — Mass NOW has secured an undisclosed new venue and is finalizing a security plan, with new details expected this week. In the same June subscriber email confirming the event would continue at a new venue, Mass NOW pointed members to "Six Trans Women Talk Menstruation," an essay collection from the Our Bodies Ourselves women's health collective in which six trans women contributors describe what menstruation means to them.
What the $260,000 buys
Mass NOW's Menstrual Equity Program supplies free tampons, pads and other disposable period products to public schools, homeless shelters and the state prison system — and bankrolls events like the annual Trans Period Pride gathering. The group piloted the program in Fall River with a separate $150,000 state grant that paid for product dispensers in every middle school, every high school and a number of homeless shelters.
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Supporters call it basic menstrual equity — free products for low-income girls and women who would otherwise go without. Critics say the same earmark underwrites the trans-branded advocacy that drove the BPL cancellation, and that taxpayers shouldn't be funding either side of a culture-war fight.
The $260,000 from Amendment 516 is meant to scale that pilot statewide and is also positioned as the financial backbone for the still-pending I AM Bill (S.2491 / H.534), legislation Mass NOW has lobbied for since 2019 that would mandate free menstrual products in every public school, shelter, jail and prison in the Commonwealth.
When the money flows
The conference committee's reconciled budget is expected before the July 1, 2026 start of the new fiscal year, with Healey expected to sign within days. The $260,000 will be drawn from state general-fund revenues and disbursed through the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Mass NOW has not publicly disclosed how the money will be split between program operations, statewide advocacy and the annual Trans Period Pride gathering itself. The Mass NOW Foundation's most recent IRS Form 990 filing for fiscal year 2024 lists total revenue of $719,925 — meaning the single Amendment 516 earmark, if signed by Healey, would amount to roughly 36 percent of the organization's prior-year budget on its own.
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