Boston, MA, September 29, 2025 — Recently, the Mayor of Quincy made deeply harmful and misinformed comments on the Dan Rea show, linking sexual violence to the LGBTQ+ community. In his follow-up statement, Mayor Koch said he “tried to make a larger point about sexual abuse across all segments of society.” Let us be clear: what he said was not only factually wrong—it was dangerous.
As leaders of organizations who work every day with survivors of sexual violence, we want to say to them first: You are not alone. You deserve to be believed, supported, and protected. These kinds of statements only make it harder for survivors to come forward, harder for them to access resources, and harder for them to believe that what happened to them wasn’t their fault. That’s the real impact of disinformation.
Let’s be very clear about the facts: Sexual violence is not about desire. It’s about power and control. Research shows that LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately targeted for sexual violence (Atteberry-Ash et al., 2022), with almost two in five LGBTQ+ young people reporting that they had been forced to do “sexual things” that they did not want to do (2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People).
Suggesting otherwise is a harmful and baseless myth. It endangers marginalized communities and shifts our attention from the very real harms they face in a political climate that seeks to erase them and their experiences.
The Mayor may not hear about sexual violence every day, but we, and members of the community he serves, do. Survivors across the South Shore and Greater Boston live with the impact of this violence every single day. Just because he hasn’t experienced it doesn’t give Mayor Koch the license to ignore or minimize the realities faced by others.
This moment should be a wake-up call, not just in Quincy, but everywhere. We have a choice. We can either let this kind of rhetoric continue, or we can speak up and say, “This doesn’t represent us.”
We are asking you to do three things today:
- Call your elected officials. This is a local election year. Ask your elected officials what they are doing to support survivors of sexual violence and to dispel dangerous myths.
- Share resources in your community. Survivors need to know help is available. You can volunteer, donate, or share your local rape crisis center’s information. DOVE and Health Imperatives serve Quincy, while BARCC serves the Greater Boston area.
- Start a conversation. With your family, your friends, and your coworkers. Let them know that sexual violence is real—and it doesn’t always look like the way people in power describe it.
Words have power. Let’s use ours to support survivors, challenge dangerous myths, and create communities that believe in supporting survivors and creating communities free of sexual violence.
Signed,
Jane Doe, Inc
The Network/La Red
Health Imperatives
Boston Area Rape Crisis Center
About the Organizations
Jane Doe, Inc., The Network/La Red, Health Imperatives, and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center are dedicated to ending sexual violence and supporting survivors across Massachusetts. Together, they advocate for policy change, provide direct services, and work to build safer communities.
Contact: Casey Corcoran, media@barcc.org
