United LGBTQIA+ Organizations Support All Transgender People Seeking to Utilize Public Facilities
JOINT STATEMENT
As LGBTQIA+ organizations, we stand in solidarity with and support of Christynne Lili Wrene Wood, and all transgender people seeking to utilize public facilities.
Transgender women are women. Period.
Transgender people in San Diego County deserve safe and inclusive spaces to live, work, and play. All people deserve access to safe public shared spaces that treat them with dignity and respect, free of harassment and discrimination. This includes locker rooms at community organizations like the YMCA.
The YMCA of San Diego County is an inclusive community space, and their policies related to facility usage are in line with state non-discrimination law and best practices for inclusive, welcoming spaces for our LGBTQIA+ community.
This incident does not happen in a vacuum: we have witnessed this fear-based narrative for decades and has escalated in the past few years to target our transgender community members specifically, putting our transgender and non-binary siblings in the crosshairs of this intentional polarization. So far in 2023, there have been over 150 anti-LGBTQ – mostly anti-transgender – pieces of legislation introduced in state legislatures across the country. With the increase in this rhetoric and transphobic legislation comes an increase in hate crimes and hate incidents against our LGBTQIA+ community.
It is also important to recognize the racial implications of this incident – a white woman claiming the mere sight of a Black woman’s body as threatening is a dangerous perpetuation of racism. The reality of anti-Black racism in this country continues to be a pervasive and unavoidable aspect of our American culture, and contributes to the consistent danger that Black people – particularly Black transgender women – face every day. We are committed to ending racism, anti-trans, and anti-LGBTQ bias and violence.
JOINT STATEMENT FROM:
The full list of 27 organizations and institutions joining this statement can be found below.
SIGNED BY
ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS:
- ADL San Diego
- Art of Pride
- Diversionary Theatre
- Equality California
- FilmOut San Diego
- GLSEN San Diego
- Imperial Valley LGBT Resource Center
- Jewish Family Service of San Diego
- Lambda Archives of San Diego
- Lambda Rising Soccer
- North County LGBTQ Resource Center
- Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest
- Queer Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern Desi American Coalition
- San Diego Black LGBTQ Coalition
- San Diego Community Birth Center
- San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus
- San Diego Original Black Panther Party for Community Empowerment
- San Diego Pride
- San Diego Pride Military Department
- San Diego Pride Youth Programs
- SD LGBTQ+ Latine Coaliton
- She Fest San Diego
- St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral
- Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition, Inc.
- The Gender Phluid Collective
- The San Diego LGBT Community Center
- TransFamily Support Services
MEDIA RESOURCES
We encourage media outlets to refer to the resources provided below to ensure that the reporting on this issue and all issues related to the transgender community are fair and accurate.
- Media Style Guides:
○ Style Guide – Trans Journalists Association
○ GLAAD Media Reference Guide – 11th Edition
- Basics on Pronouns:
○ Pronouns: A Guide from GLSEN
○ Pronoun Practice; Printable Resource | by Trans Style Guide | Medium
