A student at Berklee College of Music who reconnected with his biological sex after identifying as transgender says he and Congressman Seth Moulton “poked the same beehive” after the school canceled a presentation on his lived experience.
Simon Amaya Price, a 20-year-old Bostonian set to graduate from Berklee in December, looked to share his “Born in the Right Body: Desister and Detransitioner Awareness” presentation on campus last month before officials postponed it indefinitely.
Amaya Price told the Herald that the decision came as a shock, especially after he secured funding through the school’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion and permission to use the office’s logo in advertisements.
Amaya Price, who identified as transgender from age 14 until age 17, received an email from the college’s vice president and executive director, Ron Savage, stating: “Congratulations on your upcoming event. What a tremendous leadership step in organizing this Event.”
Classmates and people from outside the school blasted Amaya Price when he made an initial post about the talk scheduled for Oct. 20, just days before. They also slammed Berklee officials for approving the presentation.
“When I talk about this topic with most people, they tell me they’ve never even heard of desisters and detransitioners,” Amaya Price wrote in his post. “As a desister myself, I find this worrying and I have decided to organize an event this Sunday to raise awareness about this community.”
A desister is “someone who previously identified as transgender but later re-identified with their biological sex before undergoing medical intervention,” while a detransitioner is “someone who was once transgender but no longer identifies as such.”
When he woke up the next morning around 400 “overwhelmingly negative” comments greeted him on his Instagram post, “many of them threatening, many of them hateful,” Amaya Price told the Herald on Friday.
One commenter told Amaya Price that he should be “TERRIFIED” and another threatened to “throw expired groceries” at him. Dozens referenced how they felt he was “transphobic.”
A student-led online petition collected 1,998 signatures urging officials to shut down the event, which organizers claimed would “harm the mental well-being of individuals in the transgender community.”
Amaya Price and his father, Gareth Amaya Price, met with Savage on Oct. 17, with the student accepting a recommendation to postpone the Oct. 20 presentation due to safety reasons amid the turmoil.
Just days later, the student and father met with Savage again about plans to find another date and venue for the talk, but the vice president called it off “indefinitely,” Simon Amaya Price said.
“For events on campus, our first priority is always safety,” a college spokesperson told the Herald on Saturday. “The event you reference was postponed due to safety and other logistical concerns shared by both the student responsible for planning the event and the institution.”
Through networking and advocacy, Amaya Price will be hosting his presentation, which he said is a project for a “Songwriting and Social Change” course, at MIT on Nov. 24.
He said he worked with MIT Open Discourse Society, an independent group, and received support from Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender in getting it moved and rescheduled.
“Talking to a lot of people who will engage with me in good faith,” Amaya Price said, “their issue is with the existence and legitimacy of desisters and detransitioners.”
“My experience at Berklee is not the exception,” he added. “At our elite institutions, people with dissenting views are really afraid to speak up. … We can do better as a society and we should do better. This is a real problem.”
Amaya Price said he “completely” supports Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton’s post-election comments that Dems were “out of touch with the American people,” especially on transgender issues, which drew a sharp rebuke from critics.
Moulton, telling the New York Times that he doesn’t want his daughters getting “run over on the playing field by a male or formerly male athlete,” has blamed his party for the Republican red wave and Donald Trump’s victory.
“This gender ideology is right in our schools. It should not be compulsory in the way that it is,” Amaya Price said. “We should embrace diversity of thought.”
His father, who identified himself as a Democrat, also agreed with Moulton’s comments, saying that he worries about the party’s future if it continues to reject differing viewpoints.
“What surprised me is that the administration would just fold in the face of this pressure,” he said. “That they would show no backbone, no support for alternate points of view and diversity of opinion that is already present at this school.”
Slides on Amaya Price’s initial post about his presentation stated: “What happens when you realize you were wrong about being trans?” and “Minors can’t consent to a tattoo but can consent to elective, life-altering surgeries.”
Commenters called the student out for spreading “misinformation.”
Per Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, minors have the right to “access gender-affirming health care” with permission from a parent or legal guardian.
In some instances, though, parental consent is unnecessary if a “doctor believes you are mature enough to give informed consent to the treatment, and it is in your best interest not to notify your parents,” Campbell’s office states.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a national nonprofit that defends free speech, has advocated for Amaya Price. Earlier this month, the organization wrote a letter to Berklee Interim President David Bogen urging him to rescind the postponement.
“Critics of the event argue that offensive speech should be silenced because it could, ironically, undermine their own voices,” FIRE wrote in a blog post. “However, in doing so, they fail to recognize what true silencing looks like.”
Amaya Price, who lives with his parents in Boston, said he was diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” in high school while he felt “out of touch” with his body and started questioning whether he was truly transgender or not.
After a year at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a liberal arts school in Great Barrington, where he met “lots of other transgenders,” Amaya Price said he withdrew because he felt he didn’t in well.
That’s also when he said he started to detransition. Over the past few years, he admitted he’s grown comfortable with himself.
“We’re failing a lot of young people who suffer from gender dysphoria medically right now because they are not getting the help that they need,” Amaya Price said, “and the help that we’re often giving them is exactly the opposite of what would be good for them.
Herald file photo
The Berklee School of Music on Massachusetts Avenue (Jim Michaud / MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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A 96-year-old Boston woman received the surprise of a lifetime when she discovered the French men’s national soccer team had become her neighbors at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Back Bay.
Shirley, a beloved resident of the neighborhood, said she had no idea she would end up meeting the players in town for the World Cup.
“They’re my buddies,” she said with a laugh.
Her caretaker, Samia, said Shirley has become well known around Back Bay.
“Anyone outside, when we are walking, people come to her and want to talk to her,” Samia said.
The U.S. is out of the World Cup. Fellow co-hosts Mexico and Canada are too. So who should
The excitement around the hotel grew after the French team arrived to stay there during the tournament.
Shirley said the encounter happened unexpectedly while she was eating lunch.
“I was having lunch and they came over, and since then, it’s been wonderful to have them here,” she said.
Shirley said team representatives soon invited her to meet the players.
“And they said, ‘He would like to meet you.’ I said, ‘I’m glad to meet anybody,’” she recalled.
For this Massachusetts teenager, attending a World Cup match was more than a dream come true, it was a milestone in a journey that began when he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma — something that might not have happened if he hadn’t been playing soccer.
After the visit, Shirley recorded a cellphone video sharing her excitement.
“This is absolutely — I cannot tell you how unbelievably fabulous this is,” she said.
The meeting ended with a memorable gift: A jersey from French star Kylian Mbappé.
The team also made her a promise.
“[They] told me that if they win, he will sign it, and then it will be worth a lot of money,” she said, laughing.
Samia, who is from Algeria, quickly agreed. She said she was already a devoted supporter of the French squad after spending many years living in France.
“I’m so excited. I went to Philadelphia to watch the game this past weekend. So, believe me, I’m totally 100% with them. I wanted them to go back to France with a cup,” she said.
Shirley said she never expected to become a fan, but she appreciated the sense of community the tournament brought to her neighborhood.
“It’s good to see such camaraderie happening, with people here getting along. Yeah, it’s the greatest thing,” she said.
She said she still did not know why the team wanted to meet her, but she’s grateful nonetheless. Shirley remains hopeful her new friends would keep winning, and keep returning to Boston.
Local News
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Wednesday that the city is suing social media companies — including Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube — over their alleged deliberate targeting of minors with addictive features.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Boston Public Schools in federal court in California, will be consolidated with more than 1,500 similar complaints from school districts around the country, Wu’s office said.
The lawsuit seeks to force the companies to remove addictive features and compensate the city for the mental health support needed by students. It alleges the companies designed addictive features specifically to keep young people engaged. These features include endless scrolling, frequent notifications, and personalized algorithms, city officials said.
In a statement, Wu said that these companies have evidence of the harm they are causing to children.
“Boston is taking legal action to protect children and youth and hold these companies accountable. Today, we are making it clear that social media companies must end exploitative practices and be accountable to standards of basic protection for children,” she said.
The move comes as more Massachusetts politicians look to rein in social media companies. The state’s House of Representatives passed a bill in April that would implement a phone ban in schools and prohibit children 14 and younger from using social media. Gov. Maura Healey followed that up by introducing legislation that would require social media companies to verify users’ ages and limit the ways in which minors are exposed to potentially addictive design features.
Just last week, the state Senate unveiled legislation that would require social media companies to automatically disable these types of features for minors.
BPS officials say that they have seen a “significant increase” in social media-fueled mental health needs over the past decade. They cited data from the Boston Public Health Commission that shows the impact on high school students. In 2015, just 26.7% of Boston public high school students reported “persistent sadness.” By 2021, that figure had risen to 43.9%.
The district says it has responded by “exponentially” expanding mental health resources. In 2007, there were six social workers and 48 school psychologists employed in the BPS system. The district now has 240 social workers and 105 school psychologists, officials said.
“We work hard to set our students on the best course for success through rigorous academics and whole-student supports, and the research is clear that social media has had a negative impact on students’ well-being while benefiting companies. We all need to do what is right for our students,” Superintendent Mary Skipper said in a statement.
In March, a jury in California found that Meta and YouTube are liable for intentionally designing addictive features and that executives failed to protect young users.
In May, Meta and other social media companies settled a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district in a bellwether case.
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