MCC Hartford's Unsung Heroes Award

Last night I was given the Metropolitan Community Church Unsung Heroes award and I was deeply honored to receive the award. Here is my speech.

MCC Unsung Heroes Award

I want to thank you for the award, I am deeply honored and thankful for it.

The quote from the Tales of Two Cities comes to mind, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

For us it is the best of times, and it is the worst of times” we live in a blue bubble, we live in a state that protects our right. We have protections from being fired for just being ourselves, we can order a wedding cake without worrying. We can relax in our apartments without worrying about if the landlord will evict us if the landlord finds out that we are trans.

While down in D.C. they are trying to undo all of that, they are trying to legalize discrimination against us, they are saying that the Title VII and IX laws do not apply to us and they are cutting out the protections that we have won in the legislature and in the courts.

Health and Human Services just this week erased the Civil Rights Protections for LGBTQ Health Programs.

The current administration doesn’t care about what is right and what is wrong, they don’t care about what the people think, they don’t care about protests or petitions they just continue attacking us.

We think we are safe here in Connecticut but all it takes is for a new governor to write an executive order or the legislature change parties and we will just be like Washington.

And the only way we can stop it is to vote.

I read the other day that only 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people are registered to vote.

If we are going to change Washington we need all of us to register and vote next Tuesday in the municipal elections and next November in the national election.

We need to stop them from taking away our healthcare and it is not just the trans people that they are attacking but all of us with their so called “religious freedom”

We need to stop them from taking away our right to work, our right to housing and our right to go out in public without being harassed.

Become an activist and register and vote and stop this madness!