There’s nothing more American than baseball in the summertime:
the fans, the food, the game.
Eating popcorn and cheering for the home team
is one of my favorite childhood memories.
I often reflect on the game of baseball
and can’t help but see its similarities to the LGBT movement for equality.
Many of you are probably bewildered.
Let me explain.
The L, the G and the B
are currently running down the third base line
for home plate right now.
They’re not at home plate yet, but they’re awfully close.
Meanwhile, the T is held up on first base.
The transgender community will be stuck on first base for a while
if the L, G, B, A communities don’t step up to bat again.
As a transgender person myself,
I am very passionate about transgender rights
and educating people on who we are.
Everyday, it hurts to see hateful attacks
against the Transgender community in the media,
often generated by those who have never met a transgender person in their life.
The media needs to spend more time covering transgender stories
in order to create a more informed society.
Unfortunately,
the rhetoric is largely centered around the bathroom debate.
And the bathroom debate –
There is a lot of anxiety surrounding this topic.
The bathroom debate has been more fear driven than facts.
We need to change that.
For most of you, using a public bathroom is pretty straightforward.
You have the urge to go, you get up and walk into a designated restroom,
no questions asked.
You do your business, hopefully wash your hands …
(Laughter)
and continue on your day.
However, for the transgender community, that isn’t always the case.
In the past year, 16 states have considered restricting bathroom usage
to biological sex at birth.
These bills, in essence, will ban the transgender community
from using the restroom of which they identify with.
And if you choose to go against these laws and get caught, you will be fined
and, in some instances, even imprisoned.
To push these unjust bills forwards,
conservative foundations have been running TV ads
depicting men going into women’s restrooms to harass women and children.
They claim that by allowing transgender people
to use the restroom of which they identify with,
it will enable men to legally go in and harass women and children
in the restrooms.
The facts:
Anti-discrimination Protections covering gender identity
have been around for years,
and there is no evidence to suggest they lead to attacks in public facilities.
The disappointing truth about these bills
is that they really only hurt the transgender community,
which is already striking out.
In a study done by the Williams Institute,
it was found that 42% of transgender women aged 18 to 96
will attempt suicide in their lifetime.
For transgender men, the rate is even higher, at 46%.
If that statistic isn’t bad enough, I have one more to show you.
For transgender individuals
who have been denied equal access to bathrooms at work,
there is a 59% suicide rate.
These bills cause unjust hardship on the transgender community,
but small selfless actions can go a long way in shaping a movement.
A perfect example of such actions would be Kelly Heron.
Kelly is an avid runner from the Pacific Northwest
who was attacked by a sex offender in a public restroom this past March.
Luckily for Kelly, self-defense training paid off
and she was able to restrain the offender until police arrived.
Kelly’s story, as heroic as it was, immediately went viral,
and the days after, a media group
pushing for conservative, restricting laws against transgender people in the bathroom
took Kelly’s story and attempted to use it to fit their political agenda.
In this case,
stopping transgender pedophiles from using the correct restroom.
When Kelly found out about this,
she immediately stood up against the hate and fought for something,
and that’s what this conference is about.
And that’s why we need to stand with Kelly, here.
And Kelly isn’t alone.
Many large entities in the US
have also taken a stand against transgender inequality.
Organizations like the NCAA and NBA have relocated key events
in response to HB2, the infamous North Carolina Bathroom Bill.
Other companies, such as Target, Apple, Microsoft and PayPal, to name a few,
have joined in the movement to support transgender rights.
Over the past 60 years,
the transgender community has expressed a great amount of resilience.
Living in the shadows, we have managed to become your firefighters, doctors,
pilots, journalists and even soldiers fighting for our freedom.
The success of a transgender person, like a cisgender person,
is largely dependent on the love and acceptance
that they receive from friends and family.
Without love and acceptance, anything is tough to accomplish on your own.
For that matter,
we need family members who are always willing to step up and bat for us.
After all, love and acceptance is a foundation of life we all deserve.
Are you will to love and accept?
Thank you.
(Applause) (Cheering)
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