For the second or third time now, I’m compelled to write to the Gazette in response to a column by Karen Bercovici, [“Conflict of rights: Gender identity dismantles women’s and girl’s sex-based rights,” July 9] that was riddled with bigotry, false claims and animus towards transgender individuals.

It would be easy to say the writer’s ideas are a fringe perspective (she claims transgender people don’t exist in reality, only political ideology) that we should ignore. But attempts to erase people should never be ignored. Statements like Bercovici’s harm real people, transgender people, who do, in fact, exist, and whose rights must be respected.

I’m reminded of the time, decades ago, when leading up to the gay pride march, a Northampton home hung a rainbow flag on the porch, and that flag was stolen. In response, most of the homes on this particular street hung rainbow flags on their porches. It was an act of solidarity that suggested what allies do in response to acts of hate and bigotry can be more powerful than the hateful act or words.

So, here I go again.

I don’t even feel comfortable repeating the claims Bercovici’s column makes, so ignorant are her words and because I know that repeating false statements, even if to call them out, gives them more power.

Instead, I’ll quote Princeton biological anthropologist Agustin Fuentes, who, in a column published in Scientific American stated that over the past few centuries, the “process of misrepresentation of biology was, and still is, used to deny women rights and to justify legal and societal misogyny and inequity, to justify slavery, racialization, racism and to enforce multiple forms of discrimination and bias. Today dishonest ascriptions of what biology is are being deployed to restrict women’s bodily autonomy, target LGBTQIA+ individuals broadly and, most recently, attack the rights of transexual and transgender people.”

As a journalist and former longtime employee of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, I have always — and will continue to — defend the right of the paper to publish columns that evoke strong reactions. At this point, I’ll simply say, haven’t you given Bercovici enough space to spout her falsehoods and hateful ideas? It’s getting repetitive, and I seriously question the news value or the adding to community discourse value.

It’s confounding that someone who experienced discrimination as a lesbian now wants to perpetrate that same treatment on another vulnerable minority. One of the chants in many gay pride marches, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” It doesn’t rhyme but the sentiment applies: “We’re here. We’re trans. Get used to it.”

Laurie Loisel lives in Northampton and is the Ward 3 city councilor.