For the past few weeks, youth at the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach have pulled up their sleeves, opened their hearts and put pen to paper to write letters of support to LGBTQ centers in states facing anti-transgender legislation.
Jasper Fidel, a queer 23-year-old living in Long Beach, said their perspective lies in a singular quote by Martin Luther King Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“If something happens in one spot, then it can happen anywhere,” Fidel said. “[We] are going to fight regardless of where we are, or who we are, or who we’re with.”
Nationwide, pieces of anti-trans policy are inching their way through legislative bodies.
States like Texas had Senate Bill 91, a policy that would bar local governments and schools from protecting trans people from discrimination in restrooms.
In Florida, there’s Senate Bill 1028, an education bill that bans transgender girls and women from participating in sports at the secondary and post-secondary level.
In April, the Arkansas government passed a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The LGBTQ Center has looked on in horror at the proposal, and the occasional passage, of these policies.
“Our community has been in the dark too long,” said Andy Perez, communication director for the LGBTQ Center. “We’re finally at a stage where there are spots in our country where people aren’t necessarily erased any longer.”
The Center has existed in Long Beach since 1977 (officially incorporated in 1980) and provides health, legal, social and mental health services to the city’s LGBTQ community— services that are often rare in less accepting cities and states.
“The point of the letters was really to show that there’s a community, that there are people out there that are supporting you even though your government is trying to tear you down,” Fidel said.
Fidel understands the value in these statements of affirmation. In high school, when they were first coming out, they had a teacher who told them, “I’m happy that you are you. Whatever you need to be, I’ll be there for you to do that,” Fidel said.
“Just to know that I had that kind of unwavering support really changed my life,” they said.
Fidel passed on similar words of validation and affirmation in their letters: “There’s nothing wrong with you. […] You’re brave for just being yourself. A lot of love is coming your way, a lot of love from people that don’t even know you that are just excited that you’re on this journey.”
Long Beach is known as an LGBTQ-friendly city. Mayor Robert Garcia is the city’s first openly gay mayor. Alamitos Beach dons a rainbow walkway. The annual Pride festival is a premier event in the city.
“So many people here in Southern California feel that ‘Well, that’s a problem for elsewhere. That’s not a problem we have here,’” Perez said. But he said that simply isn’t true.
Over the weekend, the Center hosted a community event that was attended by a father and his daughter who is transitioning. Perez said the father was worried about his daughter’s transition, about her isolation in school, about feeling unwelcome in her neighborhood, even in Long Beach.
In interacting with other members of the LGBTQ community, Perez said that the father saw his daughter “active” and “happy” in a way he hadn’t seen in years.
“They were making a turn together, of just growing,” Perez said. “And that’s right here in Long Beach. It’s not just something happening in Arkansas or Texas and Florida. They may have these laws, but we still have a long way to go here.”
Though the letters may be a small token, Perez believes they’ll pay dividends.
“I think it empowers youth, and just people in general, to find solidarity. It’s possible, putting something out in the world that you would want for yourself,” Perez said. “Being visible only enhances our society. People feel stronger in their bodies, in their lives, and they’re able to contribute more because they’re not afraid.”
Fidel hopes that their letters will, at the least, affirm to members of the LGBTQ community that they’re supported, even from afar.
“The way these laws are being written and what is being said is not a reflection on you,” they said. “It’s a reflection of the work that this country needs to do.”
