Speaker 2: .0726 Council Operate in Louisiana offer the following resolution designating June 2022 as LGBTQ Plus Pride Month.
Speaker 1: The. The Chair recognizes Councilor Braden. Councilor Braden. You have the floor.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to my colleagues and for your accommodation. I have to leave for an important meeting very shortly. So thank you so much. May I please seek suspension of the rules in order to add Constable Baucus and original co-sponsor in addition to myself and Council Louisiana, please.
Speaker 1: Hearing no objections. Baucus Order.
Speaker 3: I offer this resolution and recognition, celebration and further commitment to the ongoing and very necessary work. Given June being Pride Month and as I expressed at the start of the meeting, it is an honor that Peggy of Dignity Boston was able to offer the council blessing today. LGBTQ, A-plus individuals in particular transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, especially those of color, face a disproportionately high risk of becoming victims of violent hate crimes. And in 2022, thus far, there has been at least 14 transgender people fatally shot or killed by or by other violent means. The COVID 19 pandemic has compounded the systemic and inequity of the LGBTQ eye to plus individuals face in health care, employment and housing systems across the United States, which has led to a disproportionate a disproportionate impact on this community and as individuals. Recently, the city has made strides towards attaining further equity for LGBTQ two plus members of our community with the Mayor's Inaugural Office of LGBTQ Plus Advancement tasked with developing policies and community oriented programing. We will provide resources for the city's multicultural, multi-generational and multilingual LGBTQ plus community. We are very excited to welcome. Quincy Roberts is the executive director leading the office to empower and protect and advance the rights and dignity of the LGBTQ plus residents across the city. And I invite my colleagues on the City Council and across the city departments to commit to furthering the values of Pride Month, not just in June , but as an interdisciplinary approach to ensuring the needs of the LGBTQ. Plus, folks are integrated into city and council constituent services through an equity lens. Pride Month is a recognition that there is more work to do to enshrine civil rights protections and build a future for all individuals, especially our LGBTQ plus brothers and sisters and and transgender community. And while we celebrate pride in our community and in our communities existence, resilience and achievements to date, we must commit, recommit to the work that still lies ahead. As I mentioned last year when I spoke about this, I had never experienced a pride celebration in my life until I came to Boston in June of 29, 1996 , I, I attended the interfaith service at Old South Church, and I'd never been in a house of worship that recognized me, saw me, and celebrated my existence. And I sat there and cried and cried even today. But I sat there and cried as I saw this incredible outpouring of warmth and support for the LGBTQ. I. Q Plus, I keep my community in Boston, and I was I had, you know, I was sitting there, the tears running down my cheeks, and this really nice Irish guy from Dorchester was keeping me and the tissues and holding my hand. And I was like, This is incredible. And then I walked out the door and I bumped into the mayor of Boston with a police color guard and LGBTQ. Color guard and I've got like blown away. Like I come from Northern Ireland where you went to the Pride Parade and you had a bag over your head because you didn't want to be recognized, because you could lose your job, you could be discriminated against, you could be physically abused and assaulted. It was very different. And but I also want to say that in this moment with the with the attack on the woman's right to choose and have access to a comprehensive woman's health care, including an abortion, is a movement in this. And there's a movement in this country to sort of push us back into the shadows. There's a movement in this country to make us go back into the closet and hide. There's a movement in this country that tries to not not give us our rights as equal citizens. So I really feel that in this moment, we have to reaffirm our commitment to recognizing our LGBTQ close brothers and sisters. And really. Dig in and affirm the dignity of all human beings, but especially the members of this community and in this moment. So I thank my co-sponsors for joining me in this, and I ask the city council to support this resolution. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, counsel. Bret and the chair recognizes counsel. Illusion, little console, illusion. You have to fall.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to thank you for thinking of me and adding me to this. And I want to thank you for the grace that you both you and your partner have showed to me from the very beginning. I really appreciate it. This, for me, in this space, actually has has a lot of meaning, because in my early twenties and my friends and I were I think I told the story before were thrown out of a nightclub in Boston because we were black. And it really was a drawing experience for me. You know, we faced discrimination, of course, as black people trying to attend nightlife or go to clubs in Boston, but never to the extent that we experienced it that night. And I remember, you know, then Councilor Pressley finding out about it and asking me to come testify before city council. And I was sitting here and I remember it very clearly. I'm sitting right where I was sitting and next to me. And it was just it was a panel about discussion about discrimination in the city of Boston. And next to me was a trans activist who talked about his experience of discrimination in the city of Boston. And after I gave my testimony, I really forgot what I said because of how much I had learned from the person sitting next to me. And that person is someone who has continued to be someone in my life that I think about and reach out to when it comes to issues affecting our LGBTQ community, I came here, you know, sharing information about my own experience and really understanding how intersectional all of our issues are and how interdependent we are all on our each other for our for our freedom. And so that sitting here in this city council more than a decade or so ago and having coming full circle and co-sponsoring this resolution means a lot to me. You know, a person who sat next to me no longer lives here in Boston, but I reach out to him from time to time to just, you know, tell him about the work that we're doing here on the council and how just influential he was in elevating the needs of all the communities, really, that are too often sidelined and silenced here, but particularly the LGBTQ plus community. And for him, the trans community here coming off of last weekend where on city hall there was a celebration of liberation for our trans community, led by trans wonderful trans activists and folks here. I just am so grateful that we have such voices elevating issues that matter most to our LGBTQ plus community. And I think, you know, Quincy Roberts is going to do an amazing job at the Office of LGBTQ Advancement, Jessie Bowman, who put on the celebration of liberation that honored leaders in the community like Grace and Usher, and so many people who put out so much of themselves to make sure that especially our trans women, our trans women of color are stunted when we talk about issues of health and housing. So, you know, this is a month of celebration and there's so much to celebrate, but it's also a reminder of the work that we have to do. And so I hope to always show up as an ally in the work and to be a good ally and to be steered when, you know, allies need to be steering. And I just am grateful for the opportunity to co-sponsor this resolution. So thank you. Consecrated.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Constitution. The chair recognizes counsel. Counsel. Bork, you have the floor.
Speaker 9: Thank you so much, Mr. President. And thank you so much to Counselor Braden for inviting me to join you and Councilor Lucian as a co-sponsor. And I think, as you've already heard from my colleagues, that, you know, this is a moment where we intermingle joy with a sense of danger and a need for renewed resolve and on behalf of our liberty. Q I was community I, I have to say that it's a community that's very special to me. I think that I think I might be one of. One of sort of the first generation of American kids to ever grow up in a majority LGBTQ community. I grew up in Bay Village, also known sometimes as Gay Village. It was this. It was the overflow of the South End's gay community at a time where that community was still stigmatized, still living in the shadows. Still to come, solutions point trying to create spaces of their own where they could be themselves. And and what's so interesting for me is that I didn't know that initially growing up. What I knew was the tremendous community of love that these people had structured because our LGBTQ parents were not mostly able to adopt and be parents. Yet it meant that I had all of these kind of aunts and uncles growing up in a village looking out for me and and just getting to know God belonging to a church that was one of the first kind of LGBTQ friendly churches in the city. And, and getting to know sort of the gay softball league as a norm and kind of like growing up in this context of joy. And then only as later as an adult really, you know, talking with and learning from these like, you know, mentors of mine in the community and really understanding, oh, when, you know, when we founded that softball league, we lost half the team to AIDS one year. Right. And, you know, when those like places that were we used to have the Bay Village Neighborhood Association Christmas party in gay club Napoleon and just understanding that those spaces had not even been allowed, had been shut down by the police, were not places that people could be. It just it it always reminds me that we've come that whole distance, even just in my lifetime. Even though I wasn't as aware of it when I was a kid, what I was aware of was the the tremendous love and mutual support that the LGBTQ community built up around each other and so many others at a time when our systems were not stepping up. And so I think it's a huge thing when the official system step up, when we get something like the LGBTQ office that the mayor is founding and that we're funding in this budget. Not to you know, I think it's worth saying that the budget that we voted on today includes the first funding for such an office, and that one of the council amendments that we just supported was to increase that even further. But I also think that that's structural. Those structural wins are hard won and they're not secure. As Councilor Braden said, they're not secure nationally. And I just in my last, I would say like 15 years have gotten to know so many trans individuals who still really bear the brunt of a very similar experience and an experience that unfortunately has not become better of what our other folks in the gay community were experiencing 30 years ago. And so I just really want to say in this pride, like I let's re commit ourselves both to that fight and and to the joy and incredible upwelling of love and and. Tremendous example that the LGBTQ community gives us. And I want to just shout out. I try to always shout out in these contexts here in City Hall, the employee resource group here, because they're doing so much to support all of our employees, everyone us. Emily Brown, my chief of staff, is on the executive committee. I'm along with a number of other really fantastic folks. And I just want to stress that even here in City Hall, we have a significant number of LGBTQ plus employees who are who are not out. You know, and I think that that it's just a testament to the fact that we have to not just be supportive in what we see as LGBTQ spaces. We have to be supportive and welcoming and building these structures of acceptance in in all of the spaces that we are in all the time. So I'm hoping to dedicate myself to that in Pride Month. And thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Council BLOCK. The chair recognizes. Counsel me here. Counsel me here. You have the floor.
Speaker 7: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to the sponsors. This is so. This is the first time on my council that I am not one of the co-sponsors of this. So I just really want to rise in support to just share my deep gratitude for this resolution that's being put forth today. As someone who started my career in youth development and the amazing privilege of working with Grace at Bagley and so many other nonprofit organizations that taught me so much about what it looks like to be truly embraced and what the real meaning of all means all was really all about, especially for so many young people who are experiencing so much here in the city of Boston. So I just wanted to add my name, and I also wanted to uplift my staff, in particular, Jacob Blake, who has taught me so much about what it means to be a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ community here. So much so that when we filed a resolution around reproductive rights, Jacob was so incredibly adamant about making sure that we talk about being gender inclusive of that language. And so when you think about the work that needs to be done here on the council and you think about the the staff that is behind so much of that work, it is important for us to recognize that we're only as good as the staff that we have. And when we have staff who are living the realities and doing the work, that we are better for that. So just want to give a shout out to to all of the efforts that my team makes every single day for us to make sure that we show up. I'm so pleased that my name. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Here with anyone else to speak on this matter? The D chair. Would anyone like to add the name? Please raise your hand. Mr. Kirklees council. A Royal Council Baker. Console collector console Fernandez Anderson console clarity console. Lara, console me here. Console Murphy, please. Out of the chair. Councilor Braden. Council illusion in Council Book six Suspension of the Rules and Adoption of Docket 0726. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. The resolution has been adopted. Congratulations. Mr. Clarke, we're going we're going to 0723. Mr. Couric, please read Dr..
Resolution designating June 2022 as “LGBTQIA+ Pride Month”.
Councilors Breadon and Louijuene rule 12 was invoked to include Councilor Bok as co-sponsors.
motion of Councilors Breadon, Louijuene and Bok, the rules were suspended; the resolution was adopted