Dear Community,
The South Coast Equity Coalition honors and celebrates the resilience of our transgender and non-binary people on this International Transgender Day of Visibility. Although the trans community has made tremendous advances towards the goal of true legal and social equality over the past decade, we have also seen how quickly some of those advances can be reversed by elected officials and others who are pushing an anti-trans agenda.
To date there are 435 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States with 7 of those bills originating in Oregon:
HB 3044 (Schools & Education)
HB 2186 (Schools & Education)
SB 453 (Schools & Education)
SB 749 (Schools & Education)
SB 452 (Healthcare)
HB 2477 (Schools & Education)
SB 897 (Healthcare)
ACLU Contribution: How state lawmakers are targeting LGBTQ Rights
· Healthcare: “These bills target access to medically-necessary health care, like Medicaid, for transgender people. Many of these bills ban affirming care for trans youth, and can create criminal penalties for providing this care. These bills exempt identical treatments offered to cisgender youth or are forced onto intersex youth. Other bills block funding to medical centers that offer gender-affirming care, or block insurance coverage of health care for transgender people.”
· Schools & Education: “State lawmakers are trying to prevent trans students from participating in school activities like sports, force teachers to out students, and censor any in-school discussions of LGBTQ people and issues. Instead of limiting resources, education, and opportunities, our schools should protect and support all students to learn and thrive.”
Locally we have seen this rhetoric at school board and government meetings, and in unprecedented attacks on our libraries. Our local trans community continues to experience systemic attacks on everything from bodily autonomy, to gender-affirming care, to attacks on education and visibility.
So today is about more than just visibility, it’s also a Call to Action – we need our community now more than ever. If you would like to learn more about ways to be involved, please email [email protected].
Thank you,
Jamar Ruff
Director, South Coast Equity Coalition
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