Abbie Breckbill felt safe in the group who showed up in support of the transgender community on Saturday. After a weapon fear caused an LGBTQ+ event to be canceled last week and later threats of violence, Breckbill said they needed to be close to transgender friends and supporters.
With their dog Roxy in tow, Breckbill said, “It feels really good to get surrounded by people who support my community.”
Breckbill uses they/them pronouns, as do other people in this story.
Saturday afternoon’s quiet protest in downtown Lancaster, held by the Lancaster section of the Democratic Socialists of America, drew around 100 people and marked the yearly International Transgender Day of Visibility. To celebrate, members of the transgender community spoke about their experience, sang tunes and read writings.
This year, Lancaster DSA held a webinar to provide safety information to guests. Event administrators in bright yellow shirts strode through the throng, looking out for challenges.
There was never a fear that Saturday’s event may take place since Lancaster Pride had to cancel a Drag Queen Story Hour at Lancaster Public Library a month prior due to safety concerns, according to Nic Prado-Carr, a part of Lancaster DSA. Local Democratic officials had been vocal about the cancellation of the account hour after they had been criticised for it.
Next week’s events are a warning of the need for trans awareness, Prado-Carr said, to demonstrate that trans people “exist beyond society arguments”. They added that people erroneously criticise transgender individuals of being “groomers” and “pedophiles”.
“Lancaster needs to hear from the transgender community about their experience. There is still a lot of ardent antagonism in just the fact that we exist, the fact that we want to sit easily, love freely”, Prado- Carr said. We must work together to make ourselves known to the public so they can see that we are actual individuals.
Parker Webb, a trans man who leads Lititz Chooses Love, agreed it’s important to instruct people on what it means to be transgender. He claimed that many people have likely encountered a transgender people in their lives but are unaware of it.
“Citizens are being based on how we look,” the statement continues. That’s a big part of the bias against our community”, Webb said. “It’s not healthy for us all to get out. Because I’m a white person, I feel healthy to be out. That gives me a lot of pleasure, and I utilize that opportunity to serve our society”.
Lancaster Trans Day of Visibility
Daphne Daulton, a transgender Lancaster area citizen, spoke to problems that the state’s Democratic commissioners stirred up discussion around the school’s Drag Queen Story Hour. In denouncing the event, some people this year criticized commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino, accusing them of creating a hazardous environment with the firmness of their language.
“We are everyday people, and I want our commissioners to know that we aren’t leaving, no matter how hard you try”, Daulton said. “Trans rights are human rights. We aren’t asking for much”.
On Wednesday, Parsons and D’Agostino denied that the Drag Queen Story Hour slammed as being a source of bomb threats to the media, the library, and Lancaster Pride, claiming they were free speech practitioners.
The Lancaster LGBTQ+ community is still mourning in addition to the threat against the story hour that local transgender activist Ash Clatterbuck committed suicide last month.
A supportive community isn’t always enough when trans people are facing harassment regularly, Prado- Cruz said. They said their child, who is nonbinary, has struggled with suicidal thoughts after classmates bullied them because of their identity.
According to Webb, a shift in culture is required to make transgender people feel accepted in their communities. That starts with everyone speaking out against anti-trans rhetoric, he said.
Tess Feiler, who works at Grandview Church in Manheim Township, closed out Saturday’s rally by calling for the community to organize for trans rights.
“You are visible”, Feiler said. “Trans visibility is power”.
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