Transgender Congressional Forum

The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus hosted a landmark forum addressing issues of violence against our transgender community. Members of Congress heard testimony from survivors of violence, community organizers, advocates & policy experts including Jean Tobin, Policy Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Tobin stated, “This year when strangers learn what I do for a living, they often say something like, ‘you must be very pleased with how this year is going.’ They are of course referring to the tremendous increase in public awareness we have seen in the last few years. People certainly are seeing & hearing more about trans people than ever before. We are making real progress both in public policy & in shifting the cultural conversation from one of fear & derision to one of understanding & support. But the truth is, that for most transgender people, this year has also been deeply traumatic. Our humanity is being attacked by state legislators, school boards & even Presidential candidates. We are being impugned as deceptive, unstable, or worse, as predators & child molesters, all for political purposes. While we have known for years that trans people face higher rates of suicides, when a transgender person dies by suicide now it is more widely reported than ever before, with so many publicly reported suicides & others lost to suicide who we may never know about…” This was a timely forum gearing up for Transgender Day of Remembrance which is Friday November 20th honoring the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
Read More: transequality.org
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