Parents of transgender children met with Congress members on Wednesday (January 30) to discuss the passage of the Equality Act, reported Gay Star News.
The parents came from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Parents for Transgender Equality National Council.
The meeting was hosted by Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA), who is a chair of the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force. He was joined by Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Dean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Mark Takano (D-CA), Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Chris Pappas (D-NH), and Gil Cisneros (D-CA).
WATCH: Parents of trans and gender expansive youth meet with the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force.
Posted by Human Rights Campaign on Wednesday, January 30, 2019
“For two years, transgender children have fought daily battles against intolerance in their schools and communities, while the adults tasked with protecting them at the highest levels of this Administration offer words of bigotry and hatred instead,” Kennedy said at the meeting. “Listening to these parents today demonstrated once again that there is no force greater than a parent’s love and no force darker than a government that fails to see the humanity in her youngest citizens.”
“We fight with those children and their parents because they should never doubt that they are heard and they are seen,” he continued, “ and they should always know that they will never be erased.”
If passed, the Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination. The Civil Rights Act extends to areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system.
Rachel Gonzales, a parent from Texas and a member of the HRC group, said at the meeting that it’s imperative the Equality Act becomes law.
“As residents of Texas, our family has experienced first hand the threat of both a hostile state government and cruel federal administration,” she said. “Our state or zip code should not dictate whether our daughter is protected from discrimination.”