Here’s the gist of a parable told by the Transgender Law Center Executive Director Masen Davis, May 22 to a group of trans people, their significant others, friends, families and allies (SOFFAs) set to participate at 2012 Transgender Lobby Day in Sacramento, Calif.:
“There was a man standing by a river. While looking across the river, he saw a baby floating down it. He dived in, saving the baby from drowning as he brought the child ashore. Then he looked across the river and saw another baby floating down the river. He again dived in, saving the baby from drowning as he brought the child ashore. Then he looked across the river yet again, but this time he saw dozens of babies floating down the river. He at that moment realized that he, as just one person, couldn’t save all of the babies floating down the river. And at that moment too, he realized that the real problem he needed to solve was upriver. Solving the problem required finding out how and why so many babies were floating down the river.”
Here in California, we have direct service providers for LGBT people that work to “save the babies floating down the river;” they don’t always have the time to fix the systemic problems that leave so many of our community in need of assistance.
California’s Transgender Advocacy Day (CTAD) occurs annually in May as an effort to fix the systematic problems lesbian, gay, bisexual and especially trans people face.
One of the two pieces of legislation that CTAD advocates lobbied for this year was Foster Youth: LGBT Competency (AB 1856). The legislation requires that the existing training programs for foster youth caregivers include information related to cultural competency and best practices for LGBT youth.
As the Transgender Law Center frames the issue, LGBT youth are disproportionately targeted for harassment and discrimination in the foster care system. This abuse is perpetrated not only by youth peers, but in some cases by facility staff, foster parents and other service providers.
The other bill CTAD advocates lobbied for the TRUST Act (AB 1081). AB 1081 reforms California’s participation in the federal government’s “Secure Communities” (S-Comm) program and will provide essential safeguards to address serious concerns raised over the program’s detrimental effects on public safety, community policing and civil liberties.
And beyond hate crimes, transgender people are disproportionately profiled by law enforcement. The Williams Institute and Bienestar recently released a report that indicated just under 70 percent of transgender Latina women report negative experiences with police.
Transgender people are not only working to “save the (individual) babies floating down the river,” but are working to fix the systematic problems. CTAD 2012 is one way transgender people are doing this.
