A Worcester city councilor needs a month to recover from ‘transphobia’
If you’re wondering why America’s Democrat-run cities are collapsing, a couple of stories out of Worcester, Massachusetts, which is less than an hour west of Boston, offer some explanation.
English settlers first came to what’s now Worcester in 1673, intending to provide a Christian settlement for Native Americans. The town played a significant early role in the American Revolution, with over 4,000 patriots shutting down the Crown Court without firing a shot in 1774. It was so important that the Constitution was first read publicly from the porch of Worcester’s Old South Church.
Worcester eventually became an important industrial city, attracting immigrants from around the world (at a time when assimilation was king). It was home to both commercial Valentine cards and, appropriately, the first envelope-folding machine. The city hit a bad patch in the years after WWII but has recently seen a resurgence as a biotechnology and healthcare hub.
I’d never actually thought much about Worcester, but today, two stories came my way, both of which show the toll that statism and wokism are taking on America’s Democrat-run cities. (Residents gave Biden almost 63% of their votes, while Trump got 35%.)
First, there’s a Reason Foundation report that lists “Public pension debt rankings for state and local governments.” It turns out that, out of all 19,502 incorporated cities, towns, and villages in the United States, Worcester holds the fourth most per capita government employee retirement debt.
Thus, the per capita public employee debt (which I believe means what each citizen is technically “responsible” for) is $7.34K, while the total amount of public employee benefit debt is $1.52 billion. That seems like a lot for a city that has only 206,500 people with a median income of $74,679
And what about the employees? Well, we know about at least one, one of Worcester’s 11 city council members, earning a salary of just over $36,000 for this part-time job.
Thu Nguyen, who identifies as “a proud queer, Vietnamese, nonbinary refugee,” has some seriously hard-left political goals:
Councilor Nguyen believes in a political reimagination of Worcester and nationally, where our government uplifts and holistically serves everyone. Invested in the notion of social justice, they commit their time and efforts in community (re)building, advocacy and enjoying sunsets while investigating and navigating the intersectionality of identity, systems and openings for collective care and healing.
Unsurprisingly, Nguyen is a very fragile person. That’s why it announced that it needs to take a month’s leave from weekly council meetings to deal with the stress of having been “misgendered.”
The first openly nonbinary lawmaker in Massachusetts history is taking a leave of absence after they allegedly dealt with transphobia from colleagues, including Worcester's mayor.
Thu Nguyen, who has served as an at-large councilor since 2022, says their “hiatus” is to prioritize their mental health and emotional safety after they were allegedly subjected to a discriminatory and toxic culture on the Worcester City Council. Nguyen also said this month off will be to forge a path to address this support, asking for support in holding Worcester to a moral and legal standard “that feels like the bare minimum.”
An older white woman who serves on the council shame-facedly confessed that she had indeed “misgendered” Nguyen, but said it was an “honest” mistake that happened “early” in their relationship:
With regard to Councilor Ngyuen's statement, early on when the Councilor was elected, I did make an honest error in addressing the councilor and may have done so a few times, for which I apologized. There has never been any intentional or consistent misgendering.
— Kate Toomey, Worcester City Councilor (@CouncilorKate) January 15, 2025
On the other hand, I like the cut of Councilor Mero-Carlson’s jib, for she allegedly Nguyen “it,” the grammatically correct term for someone who disclaims any biological gender. Mero-Carlson also revealed the probable real problem here, which is that Nguyen is prickly and doesn’t bother to show up for work:
Thu Nguyen, a nonbinary city councilor for Worcester, Massachusetts with they/them pronouns, announced she is taking a month-long leave due to the unsafe and toxic culture after she was misgendered. She also filed official complaints with the city. pic.twitter.com/GHAK8CufuB
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 16, 2025
By claiming victimhood, Nguyen has seamlessly transitioned from someone who should be voted out for failing residents to becoming someone with an unchallengeable excuse and a basis for an expensive claim against an already debt-burdened city. So it goes in America’s broken leftist enclaves. Worcester’s founders, most of whom fought for legitimate causes, weep.
I’ll wrap up with one more Nguyen tidbit. In both its pictures on the city website and in its statement about its hurt feelings, Nguyen wears a keffiyeh. Nguyen is seemingly unaware that Islam doesn’t tolerate the LGBTQ+ movement. Under Hamas’s control and in other parts of the Muslim world, homosexuals are routinely tortured and executed. So much for social justice.