A proclamation honoring Transgender Day of Remembrance and celebrating the contributions and resilience of Denver's transgender community.
Okay. Communications. Do we have any communications? None. Mr. President. Proclamations. We have three proclamations this evening. Councilwoman, can each we read proclamation 1787 or I'm sorry, 1287. Thank you, Mr. President. Proclamation 17 1287. Honoring Transgender Day of Remembrance and celebrating the contributions and resilience of Denver's transgender community. Whereas Transgender Day of Remembrance will be observed on November 20th, 2017, to honor the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of Anti-Transgender violence, an annual event which began in 1998 with a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed and which now honors all transgender people lost to violence. And. Whereas, a formal vigil honoring those who were lost and the loved ones they left behind will be hosted by the Gender Identity Center on November 20th at 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a reception to follow at East High School. 1600 City Park Esplanade, Denver. And. Whereas, our entire community is diminished when we lose the talents and contributions of any member of our community prematurely, whether due to direct anti-transgender violence or due to suicide or other health effects resulting from trauma or discrimination. And. WHEREAS, Denver honors the bravery and resilience of the thousands of transgender individuals who live, work or play in our city in their authentic gender. And although we are proud of the existing protections we have in place for transgender individuals to pursue their lives free from discrimination in Denver and in Colorado, we reaffirm a commitment to ongoing efforts to promote full inclusion of transgender individuals in the city. And. WHEREAS, we honor the outstanding organizations that serve as resources to transgender individuals in Denver, including the Gender Identity Center of Colorado, which specializes in providing critical supports and services to the transgender community. The GLB Community Center of Colorado, which opened in 1976 and has grown to become the largest community center in the Rocky Mountain region and provides social, educational and support programs for the transgender community. One Colorado, a leading advocacy organization for LGBTQ Coloradans and their families, which works to expand health care access for transgender Coloradans and to remove other barriers they face in everyday life and the work of our own LGBTQ commission, which partners with the community to advance social, economic and political equality through their unique position within the city and county of Denver. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City and County of Denver, that section one that the city council, the city and county of Denver solemnly declares November 20th as Transgender Day of Remembrance and Section two that the Clerk of the city and county of Denver shall a test and a fix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that a copy be delivered to the LGBT Community Center of Colorado , the Gender Identity Center of Colorado, one Colorado and the Denver LGBTQ Commission. Thank you. Councilwoman, your motion to adopt. I move that proclamation 1287 be adopted. It has been moved in second comments by members of Council Council McNeish. Thank you, Mr. President. It is with mixed emotions that we consider this proclamation tonight. According to the Human Rights Campaign funds, there have been 25 murders of transgender individuals in our country so far this year. That's an uptick from last year, which was an uptick from the year before. The vast majority of these victims have been people of color. And even more disturbing disparity of race in the gender identity homicides that have occurred. The loss of these lives, these talents, these contributions is a tragedy for the victims and their loved ones, and it highlights significant failures in our country. The epidemic of transgender violence, unfortunately, begins young. About 16.2% of transgender students experience physical assaults at school, while 32.5% experience physical harassment. But in the midst of all these threats, there is hope. There has been so much this year that has been demonstrating the bravery of our transgender community. Coming on the heels of Veterans Day, we have out transgender service individuals who are fighting and so far winning in the courts to keep fighting for our freedoms. At a time when the civilian leader of the military has tried to kick them out and terminate their careers. They are fighting and they are winning. Danica Roem is poised to be the first transgender individual elected and to serve in a state legislature when she takes office in the Virginia House of Delegates. She defeated a legislator who tried to stoke fear and deprive transgender individuals of the basic right to use a bathroom that matches their gender . Now here in Colorado, we have a long, good history. Demonstrate discrimination based on gender identity or expression has been prohibited since 2008. Brave transgender children, their parents, teens and adults continue to work for greater inclusion in schools and in health care. There are trainings that are happening every day. There are inclusive health care policies available on the exchange right now today because of the work of these families. But what we know is that misunderstanding and fear still exists. We know this because subtle and overt discrimination still occur in our city, in our state. So in addition to the violence the state was founded to bring attention to, yes, this proclamation is a tribute to those who've been lost or harmed. Yes, it's a celebration of the bravery of transgender people who go to. Work, go to. School, walk down the street, serve in the military, run for office, seek shelter, or do anything they need to do in their daily lives, in their authentic gender. We celebrate that. But it's also a call to action. What are we doing to expand our own understanding of transgender neighbors and coworkers? How do we understand the terminology and use the proper pronouns when we are talking about friends or loved ones? Are we actively supporting the fight of our community to be both? To be able to adjust birth certificates? There are bills at the legislature that have been shut down for several sessions to do the simple thing of changing someone's birth certificate so they can match their gender. The state has not yet passed that legislation. Are we helping? Are we are we writing our legislators? Do we challenge derogatory language or rigid gender expectations when we hear it in our everyday lives? So I'm really proud that our council is not just hosting this proclamation tonight, but we're going to work to educate ourselves better. We're going to hold a training in a few weeks open to all the city council family to learn more about this piece of our community and to understand what their needs are and how we can better serve them. And so all of the organizations that are here today are resources to you. If you think you might want to do some of the same training, I encourage you to reach out. So I think these community serving organizations and I think the brave individuals who live their lives each day in spite of the challenges and give us hope to continue to work towards that future that we all believe in. And with that, I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to bring this proclamation forward tonight. Thank you, Councilwoman. Can each councilman. Clerk. Thank you, Mr. President. I can't say anything better than what the proclamation did or what you just did. Councilwoman Canady. So I just wanted to say thank you so much for bringing this forward, for leading on this. And I'm very proud to sit up here with you today and support this proclamation in this community. Thank you. All right. Councilwoman Ortega? Well, I want to say ditto to that, but I also want to acknowledge the body of council that sat here and adopted the original ordinance that created equal protection for. Everyone in our community, especially our LGBTQ community. And Kathy Reynolds was the catalyst that brought that legislation forward. Her staff person, Judy Gold, worked very hard with the community to get that legislation passed. As you know, it was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and we prevailed. And so I just think it's important to always, you know, remember some of the folks that did the heavy lifting on what has been duplicated and replicated across the country, where folks recognize the importance of honoring the contributions of everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega, Councilor Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for bringing this proclamation forward. I think it's a very powerful statement from the council. It's a statement of solidarity and which I am proud to stand in solidarity with the community. I think it's super important that we not only passes, but we communicate this in a way so that other cities may aspire to do the same thing in not just in Colorado, but around the country. I think Denver is a very important regional city. And people people follow our lead when it comes to stuff like this. They're just waiting on some cities to take the first step. You know, we're not the first step, but I think we're an important step. And with this proclamation moving forward, I think, you know, councilman can use this. This is a very strong moment for us. But also, I think I can only think of one word when I think of this struggle and that self-determination and the right to self-determination. Right. There's no human being in this world that should be stripped of that right, of human, of of self-determination, let alone in this country, where we have a constitution that enhances that empowers us self-determination. So here's to that solidarity. Thank you, Councilman Kenny, for the proclamation. All right. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Councilwoman Canete. Let the church say amen. Madam Secretary, roll call. Say louder. Can each. I. Lopez I knew. Ortega Hey, man. Sussman. Sussman My black eye. Clark Hi. Espinosa. Flynn, I. Gillmor. Herndon. Cashman. Hi. Mr. President. Hey, man. Please close the voting. Announce the results. 3913 Eyes Proclamation 1287 has been adopted. Councilman, can each. Is there anyone you want to bring up? Yes, Mr. President. The Gender Identity Center of Colorado is going to represent all of the organizations being honored. Is Jesse here or Karen and Julie, do you want to go up? Okay. Please. Right to the microphone there. Thank you. Thank you council members. For the proclamation. Hmm. You know, there's nothing that the transgender community needs more than support from everyone else. If it's the one thing that we lack, we are center can take care of helping people. We can give counseling. We have support groups. But what we don't. Have sometimes is. Support of other people in the community. And if there's anything that's really important, that's it. And so this proclamation. While it may not seem like a lot. Means a real lot to us. And if from my. Hand because it helps raise the poker public awareness of the violence and discrimination that our community. Experiences pretty much every hour of every day, not just here, but also across the world. So thank you so much for. Helping us do that. And I also want to mention, and I think you did mention that we're having. The Transgender Day of Remembrance at. East High School at 630 on Monday the 20th. And can you share who the keynote speaker is? The keynote speaker is going to be Leyla Ireland. And for those of you who may not know who she is, she's a veteran. That's a trans woman. Her husband is a serving veteran that is a trans masculine person. So he's in jeopardy of losing his job. And they're doing a lot to fight for that. Thank you. We got your back. All right. Great. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Councilwoman. All right, we're on to the second proclamation. I'm going to have Councilman Ortega please read Proclamation 1290.