What we can do for Trans People
Last night, I showed up to City Council late. Started getting emotional towards the end. I have had multiple people ask me recently what can we do for Trans People in our community. How we can keep people safe.
We have seen Trans People come under assault, and I try my best to be understanding of the discomfort. I’ve had my own experience struggling here, but it also comes from my perspective as someone who is non-binary in my self-perspective. I thought about transitioning, and I am fine not having done that, but like, social fear shouldn’t have been the one reasons why. These are complex conversations, and ones with a lot to unpack so we can’t really get into it here…
But anyway, I thought I lived in a nation that believes in the pursuit of happiness. Like, it might have taken us a while to realize that the pursuit of happiness didn’t include slavery or racial segregation, but we got there. We need to continue moving in the right direction to keep the promise of America; we’re headed down the wrong one when it comes to LGBTQ issues.
Anyway, I’ve been giving a, in my own opinion, very weak answer until recently. Tonight, it dawned on me that there is a very real need to fund the public library, not only because it is good, but so we can stand on our City values. The library pulled back on programming like the drag story time because we had terrorism threatened upon the City. We had terrorism threatened. Look, it’s a bomb threat, real or fake. As a result, in part to prevent losing vulnerable funding and more threats, this programming has since disappeared.
We can be upset or disappointed by this all day long, but tonight it hit me how we have in a way already transacted some lives for others. How we have prevented people from being seen. We threw people overboard. I’m not mad or going to throw stones at anyone for not thinking this before, or for the choices made by the library. The library is only as strong as the funding it can maintain, and it needs our support if we want it to follow our values. Unless we hold more stake, we are just one of many equal stakeholders.
To this end, there is so much I could say about the library and it’s key role in my vision for Lancaster, but I want to stay on subject to why I got upset tonight. The library is asking for $5 per capita, the City gives about $2. Does standing on values sometime suck? Yeah, but I’d rather have a library that continues to build on welcoming all people who want to pursue the goals obtainable through access and education and the City need to go alone in the effort, rather than a library that is fine to a majority of people. I don’t know exactly what will happen if we increase our funding from $110,000 to $275,000; I do know it sets the stage for making more asks of the library in meeting our community goals.
Money talks, and if we want a library that stands on our values, we need to fund it. If other municipalities want to pull their funding, fine. If the County wants to pull their funding, fine! Then let us have the library we want, and let them have the library they want. If other municipalities want to stay with us, great, if they don’t, cool. We will figure it out, and we will be better for it. It is brave people, not fearful ones, which support the pillars of education. We cannot hold much weight if we have no spine to support it.
In addition to this, one of the biggest reasons we need to focus on housing is not JUST to help the people who live here. We need housing that people who are escaping oppression can afford and move into. I will not wait for the private market to provide housing. Is this a housing crisis or are we still just waiting for the market to drop? I am not saying that standing on our values will be easy. I am saying standing on our values, and making the tough choice, will reward our city and anyone who is willing to continue participating in this union we call Lancaster City.
So what I’m telling people what we can do for Trans People is fund the library and build housing. We can take hate speech and action more seriously. We can know that people will try and disuade us from this goal, through potentially violent tactics, but we can also know we are standing up for all people and telling them that whatever comes our way. That we won’t let private or external money change our community values and goals.
I am ready to push the City towards something big. Are you ready for us to move towards something big? If you are, we need you to speak up.
