California’s San Mateo County celebrates trans people, fights bullying
At a time of attacks on transgender people and immigrants, San Mateo County in Northern California is standing up for them.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Tuesday OK’d a resolution confirming the county’s commitment to fight bullying of young people, Local News Matters reports. The county is located just south of San Francisco.
“[Donald] Trump’s bullying tactics have swept across our schools, causing immigrant children to fear being deported and LGBTQ+ children to fear having their long-fought for rights to be trampled upon,” Board President David Canepa, the resolution’s sponsor, said in a statement released Monday night, according to the site.
The resolution “directs each county department and employee to engage in efforts that prevent bullying, provide education and intervene if bullying occurs,” the site notes.
The board also voted Tuesday to recognize March 31, next Monday, as Transgender Day of Visibility. It raised the trans Pride flag Wednesday on the county flagpole in anticipation of the day.
“For everyone that is a part of this community, we see you, we are here with you, and we are committed to celebrating your beauty, your love, our pride, and your joy,” Supervisor Noelia Corzo, the new liaison to the county’s LGBTQIA+ Commission, said at the ceremony, according to local paper The Daily Journal.
“San Mateo County does lead the way, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have more work to do,” Corzo added. “I want to thank the commission for their ongoing work in pushing us to be more welcoming, be more affirming, provide a safer community for every LGBTQIA+ community member in our county.” People attending the ceremony waved their own small trans Pride flags.
Ishani Dugar, lead trainer and peer group coordinator at the San Mateo County Pride Center, spoke at the event on the importance of visibility. “Wear flags or raise them if you have them, share your pronouns with folks, correct assumptions about identity that people will hold, push back on folks who assume that others in their space will be comfortable with transphobic language or with assuming that trans people are not present,” Dugar said.
The Pride Center will hold an online Trans 101 Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, it will host a mixer for families of trans kids from 6 to 7:30 p.m.