Shop Local Raleigh director apologizes for transgender youth comment
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Shop Local Raleigh director Jennifer Martin apologized for anti-trans comment
- Anonymous December Facebook comment denying transgender youth sparked backlash
- Some business owners demand resignation; organization faces potential member losses
The director of Shop Local Raleigh apologized Friday for her recent online comment dismissing transgender youth identity.
“I want to sincerely apologize for a comment that I made that caused real hurt and pain to some in our community,” said Jennifer Martin, executive director of Shop Local Raleigh, according to a post on Shop Local Raleigh’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
“It was never my intention to cause pain or division, nor to bring harm to my employer or to those I love and have supported for many years,” Martin wrote. “Still, I recognize that intent does not erase impact, and I take responsibility for the harm my words caused.”
The apology, signed “Humbly,” doesn’t specifically mention the transgender or larger LGBTQ+ communities.
“I’ve heard my actions have caused division among people and that breaks me,” Martin said. “Speaking for me and me only, not my employer, I believe we are all called to love one another just as Christ has loved and forgiven us. My hope and my prayer are that we can move forward together with humility, compassion, forgiveness and renewed commitment to care for one another. My desire is for healing, understanding and love within our community.”
In late December, Martin commented anonymously in a Facebook group in response to a parent seeking sports opportunities for their transgender child.
“There’s no such thing as a transgender son,” Martin wrote in the Facebook group Networking Women of the Triangle. “Blessing to you, but the sooner you help your son realize this, the more successful he (maybe a she) will be.”
While the comment was made anonymously, Facebook administrators could see her name, banned her and shared her identity with the wider Facebook group.
Since then, some Triangle business owners have called on Martin to resign or apologize, while others have said they may leave Shop Local Raleigh, which has more than 900 members and runs the Raleigh Christmas parade and the popular Brewgaloo craft beer festival.
Martin has not responded to The News & Observer’s emailed questions about her comments.
Deanna Jones, a transgender woman and the president of Harmony, the NC LGBT+ Allied Chamber of Commerce, is among those who want Martin to resign. She called Martin’s December comments part of the effort to erase trans individuals that escalated last year.
If Martin had made those comments in 2024, Jones said, it would have been “just mindboggling.”
“But, right now, it’s almost become accepted to make a statement like this, and I was really glad to see there was a lot of pushback from businesses,” Jones said. “I think that’s because the community is far ahead of what our government is trying to do, and by far ahead, I mean most businesses are very accepting.”
Jones said Martin’s apology was disappointing and disingenuous.
“I mean, how do you make a comment like that without an intent to cause pain for people? We all know that transgender people exist,” she said. “We can go back thousands of years, and there’s evidence for transgender people. ... And for her to say, ‘I never intended to cause any division,’ this is the clear line of division against people who believe in our existence and people who don’t, who want to rid the world of us.”
“It‘s very hurtful when I wake up in the morning and there’s some new law that’s been passed, and this only further multiplies that hurt exponentially to just say, well, transgender youth don’t exist.”
Jones went on to say she knew she was transgender when she was 4 years old.
“I didn’t have the language for it, but at 4 years old, I knew what I wanted, and I didn’t get to transition until I was 54 years old,” Jones said. “And I lived 50 years in a lot of pain and a lot of grief over the fact that I had to just stay in what my body was as it existed.”
On Saturday, the LGBT Center of Raleigh released a statement urging local groups and leaders to reject transphobia, “publicly affirm the dignity and humanity of transgender and nonbinary people” and continue education and partnership efforts with LGBTQ+ organizations.
“Comments like those of Jennifer Martin, and a lack of direct accountability for them from Shop Local Raleigh, remove safety for our transgender friends, family, and neighbors here in Raleigh,” according to the statement. “The people and organizations who serve our local community must serve the whole community, and perpetuating dehumanizing rhetoric toward transgender people only adds to a sense of permissiveness in attacks against transgender people’s rights and very existence.”
True accountability needs more than “a generic apology,” and, instead, must name the harm done, centering those most impacted and taking steps to repair trust, according to the statement.
This story was originally published January 2, 2026 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Shop Local Raleigh director apologizes for transgender youth comment."
