• Equality
  • Community
    • Health
    • Youth
    • Seniors
  • Voices
    • From the CEO
    • Take Five
    • Why I Give
  • About the Center
  • Galleries
  • Calendar
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • 2nd Annual Sabor de Mi Centro Block Party Boogies in Boyle Heights
  • Senior Prom Celebrates 25th Anniversary
  • “Solidarity Forever”: Montana State Rep. Zooey Zephyr at Trans Town Hall
  • “We Are Immense, and We Are Abundant”: Trans Pride LA Organizer Gina Bigham Looks Back on a Decade-Plus of Highlights and the Biggest Trans Pride Yet
  • Trans Actors, Athletes, and Activists Celebrate Community and Solidarity at First-Ever Trans Town Hall
  • “My Crown Is Paid For”: 12 Center Portraits of Juneteenth
  • House of Avalon, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Join Center Staff and Supporters for LA Pride: “F*ck the Margins. We’re the Center.”
  • This Year’s AIDS/LifeCycle Participants on Why They Ride
Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube
LGBT News Now
Learn about career opportunities at the Center
  • Equality
  • Community
    • Health
    • Youth
    • Seniors
  • Voices
    • From the CEO
    • Take Five
    • Why I Give
  • About the Center
  • Galleries
  • Calendar
LGBT News Now
You are at:Home»Equality»Equality Now: Center Joins in the Dems’ LGBTQ Equality Town Hall

Equality Now: Center Joins in the Dems’ LGBTQ Equality Town Hall

0
By on October 27, 2019 Equality

Los Angeles LGBT Center staffers were among those selected to ask questions to Democratic Presidential hopefuls during CNN’s Equality Town Hall in Los Angeles on October 10.

National Community Center Policy Manager Tanya Tassi asked Senator Kamala Harris what protections she would put in place to ensure a discrimination-free environment in the workplace.

LGBT News Now

“How can we ever defend that our LGBTQ brother and sisters are treated differently under the law when they walk into their place of work?” Harris replied. “It’s a fundamental issue as far as I’m concerned. I will stand and fight for equality every day of the week.”

The question comes as the US Supreme Court is considering a case about gay and transgender workers are covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex.

Mariana Marroquin, program manager at the Trans Wellness Center, voiced concerns about LGBTQ people and immigration.

“Leaving my country was not a matter of a better life—that was my only option to survive,” shared Marroquin, who was born in Guatemala. “There’s a possibility right now that all the asylum seekers are sent back to the same country where they experienced persecution, harassment, and even torture to wait for the asylum process.”

LGBT News Now

She then asked former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke if he has a plan to deal with this crisis.

“Unfortunately, we are going in exactly the opposite direction,” O’Rourke acknowledged. “We no longer recognize this as a valid claim for asylum, though we know that when we turn people back to their country of origin, where they face persecution, they often face certain death. We have to make sure that we welcome all of those who literally have no other place to go to.”

When the evening’s final candidate, businessman Tom Steyer, was on the stage, he was asked by the Center’s Policy and Operations Manager Maria Melo about LGBTQ asylum seekers being denied parole in detention centers across the country.

Melo pointed out that two people have died in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody in the past years and a half years due to lack of access to HIV care and at least 24 immigrants have died overall in ICE custody in the past three years.

“Will your administration be ready from day one to put in place strong measures and penalties to increase oversight over HIV health care access in detention centers across the country and save lives of LGBT asylum seekers?” she asked.

Steyer said he believes “it’s absolutely critical for the United States of America to treat people in a humane and decent fashion” and accused President Donald Trump of “committing crimes against humanity” in the name of the U.S.”

In addition to Harris, O’Rourke, and Steyer, other candidates who took part in the forum were Julián Castro, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar. Each candidate was given approximately 30 minutes of airtime answering questions by LGBTQ members of the audience.

Approximately 75 people gathered at the Center’s Anita May Rosenstein Campus to watch the forum, which has held at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.

Viewer Eddie Edwards was glad to hear immigration addressed by some of the candidates.

“LGBT people in other countries are more at risk of being killed,” Edwards said. “I believe they should be given special consideration in being allowed to enter our country for their safety. I haven’t heard enough about this from candidates. I’d like to have them address it on the campaign trail.”

Joy, who also attended the viewing party, was taking note of the candidate’s positions on transgender issues because she has a 15-year-old trans child.

“I’m really concerned about what my kid’s future employment options will be and what my kid’s chances of being violently attacked will be,” she said. “When I heard Donald Trump come out with a ban on trans people in the military, I was appalled. People deserve to have their jobs without being humiliated or fired.”

Center staffer Bella Gavilan was also focused on what the candidates said about discrimination against LGBTQ people.

“I was discriminated against in a previous job,” said Gavilan, a human resources administrative assistant at the Center.  “I was there for eight years and was supposed to be up for district manager. They brought someone else in from outside of the company rather than have someone who is transgender as the district manager. They let me go in 2013 and there was nothing I could do. I’ve seen this discrimination first-hand. This happens to us a lot.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Related Posts

Trans Actors, Athletes, and Activists Celebrate Community and Solidarity at First-Ever Trans Town Hall

Easter Sunday Drag March Draws Thousands to Protest Against Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation

Vote in the 2022 Midterm Elections!

Comments are closed.

Upcoming Events

Oct 14
7:30 am - 6:00 pm

Models of Pride 2023

View Calendar
About Us

LGBT News Now

LGBT News Now is a publication of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, the Center is the largest LGBT organization in the world, dedicated to building a world where LGBT thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. Learn more at lalgbtcenter.org.

Follow Us on Instagram

lalgbtcenter

The Los Angeles LGBT Center is building a world where LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.

Los Angeles LGBT Center
“Queer people are told to minimize everything. W “Queer people are told to minimize everything. We’re told to be the friend or the supporting character. But drag makes us think, what if I’m the main character?” asked #TrixieMattel in her speech at last year’s #ModelsofPride, the world’s largest free conference for #LGBTQ+ youth. “I want you guys to know that you are all the main character.”

The “RuPaul’s Drag Race” champ accepted the event’s Model of Pride award, celebrating her epic career spanning entertainment, music, cosmetics—and even commercial renovation, with the hotel makeover series “Trixie Motel” for Discovery—at a time when drag was becoming a growing target for the far-right. 

This year, the drag bans have evolved into an anti-LGBTQ assault on California schools, but Models of Pride is back on October 14th with keynote speakers like #DylanMulvaney and #HayleyKiyoko to create the safe, empowering space our students need right now. You can register at the #linkinbio, or head to modelsofpride.org for more info.
Closing out #BiVisibilityWeek with a banger. (Did Closing out #BiVisibilityWeek with a banger. (Did YOU know the B in Cardi B was for #Bisexual?) Remember you are valid, you owe nobody an explanation, and you’re loved. 🩷💜💙
Happy #BiVisibilityDay! Today we’re giving love Happy #BiVisibilityDay! Today we’re giving love to and celebrating the B in LGBTQ. Bi Visibility Day was created to recognize and celebrate the Bi+ community including the need to reduce stigma of the identity. Bisexuality is beautiful and bi folks deserve love, support and acceptance. How are you celebrating Bi Visibility Day? Drop your 🩷💜💙’s in the comments 

🎥 @kimhoyos
🚨#Breaking: The United States is facing a short 🚨#Breaking: The United States is facing a shortage of injectable penicillin, which is the usual medication used for treating #syphilis. Fortunately, #DoxyPEP has been proven to effectively lower the risk of sexually transmitted infections, such as syphilis, by as much as 87%. For more information, swipe to view our FAQs on DoxyPEP or visit the link in our bio.
We are excited to announce recording artist #Hayle We are excited to announce recording artist #HayleyKiyoko (@hayleykiyoko), AKA #LesbianJesus, as this year’s double headliner and honoree at our #ModelsofPride youth summit! She joins keynote speaker and Model of Pride Award recipient #DylanMulvaney and social media star @RubasWorld, who will serve as the event’s host on October 14.

At a time when LGBTQ+ education is under attack, Models of Pride lifts love, acceptance, and queer joy for LGBTQ+ youth and allies. For more info and registration, visit modelsofpride.org. 

#ModelsofPride #LGBTQYouth  #LoveAndAcceptance
Join us for #Queerceañera on Friday, Sept. 29th! Join us for #Queerceañera on Friday, Sept. 29th! 

Hosted by RuPaul's #DragRace Season 15 alum, @EsTitties, Queerce is a vivid cultural summit and community cotillion rooted in unbridled celebration. This year’s honorees RuPaul’s #DragRaceMéxico host @allaboutvalentina and actress/recording artist @MissBenny sitting down together in a candid keynote conversation. 

But wait, there’s more! The post-program reception features tropical cocktails and live performances by #LA’s own Latin dance phenomenon @Queerchata. RSVP now at our #linkinbio #LatinxHeritageMonth
We are thrilled to announce superstar and host of We are thrilled to announce superstar and host of #DragRaceMexico #Valentina as an honoree and keynote speaker at the Center’s first-ever #Queerceañera! Join us in celebrating the vibrancy of LA's LGBTQ+ Latinx community on Friday, Sept. 29 in Hollywood.

There’s more! The post program reception features tropical cocktails and live performances curated by LA’s own Latin dance phenomenon @Queerchata. RSVP now at our #linkinbio #LatinxHeritageMonth
“You don’t necessarily have to be from a ranch “You don’t necessarily have to be from a ranch to be a cowboy.” Every spring in Zacatecas, Mexico, men from across North America don their finest cowboy attire for a private gathering of gay vaqueros. The weekend-long convention is a celebration of Mexican culture where attendees are free to embrace their authentic selves. “[Mexican culture] is ours, too,” one attendee told the Los Angeles Times.

Founded nearly 20 years ago by bar owner Mariano Escobar, the event features live music, dancing, and a contest for “rostro vaquero”—the official face of the convention and a nod to Mexican festivals where women are crowned “princesses” or “queens.” This year, the title went to Eros Herrera, a police officer who recently opened a homeless shelter and soup kitchen serving the #LGBTQ+ community in San Luis Potosi.

“When I’m on the street, I’m very discreet,” Daniel Renteria, an agave farmer who traveled an hour and a half to attend, told the Times. “Having to hide yourself is hard. Events like this one unite us.” Read more at the #linkinbio.

Happy #LatinxHeritageMonth—stay tuned for more coverage on this page over the next few weeks.

📷 Gary Coronado via @latimes
Step into the captivating world of “The Real Bla Step into the captivating world of “The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen.” The play tells the untold history of William Dorsey Swann, a trailblazing figure in the #drag community and #LGBTQ+ activism. Written and performed by the talented Les Kurkendaal-Barrett, this one-person show is a meditation on the legacy of ancestry and what it is to be #Black and gay in America. Don't miss this groundbreaking show at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre, running now through Sept. 24! Follow the link in our bio to get your #tickets now.🎭✨

📷 @mammothsprite
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Stay Connected
Subscribe
Copyright © 2022 Los Angeles LGBT Center
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.