WACO, Texas — The country celebrated Trans Day of Visibility on March 30. While the one day shows support for the trans community, the Waco Pride Network hopes to discuss some ways to make trans people feel more supported and comfortable year-round.
They plan to attend the Waco City Council meeting on Tuesday with four main topics to discuss. First, they plan to ask for them to sign a proclamation declaring June as Pride Month.
The group also wants them to consider an inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance across the city to protect LGBTQ members in the workforce and to include the community in the city's equity economic development conversations. Finally, they plan to ask city council members to use their personal platforms to show LGBTQ support.
"They have some really great platforms to reach out to people and they can reach a really diverse group of constituents," Waco Pride Network's Communication Chair Jeffrey Vitarius told 25 News. "To kind of use those platforms to identify LGBTQ issues and people and raise up those voices a little bit on those platforms."
Vitarius said those few changes could help all members of the LGBTQ community feel safer in Waco.
"It really is a matter of life or death to a certain degree," he said. "Being an affirming and welcoming community is just huge to these communities."
These conversations come just one month after the state declared gender-affirming care to be child abuse for people under 18. Supporters say children are too young to make a life-altering decision like this.
"It is child abuse to perform gender mutilation and gender modification on children under the age of 18," Texas Values Representative Mary Castle told 25 News when the declaration was first made. "These hormones, puberty blockers, and even the procedures themselves are permanent procedures and can have life-altering effects."
While many people passionately agree, trans-Texans do not. The Transgender Network of Texas called the news "devastating" and a direct attack on their community.
"If you look at our state, it's another embarrassment of our state leadership's failure to embrace progress that could help people they allegedly reportedly are representing in the state," Director Emmett Schelling told 25 News.
While they say their progress is being limited on a state level if Waco City Council can agree to these changes it would make every day feel like trans visibility day in our community.
The Waco Pride Network is asking the community to come out and support them tomorrow at the city council meeting. It starts at 6 p.m.
