Los Angeles has historically been known for being a hub where immigrant communities, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups can find opportunities to prosper. While it’s not always as glorious as it sounds, this city has led a great number of progressive strides; HOWEVER, these efforts continue to exclude transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) people from political conversations locally, despite the city also serving as a safe haven for thousands of TGI people. Los Angeles is the third richest city in the country at a whopping budget of 11.76 billion dollars for the 2022-2023 year. This Transgender Day of Visibility, we are asking for the TransLatin@ Coalition to be explicitly included in this year’s city’s budget to fund our growth and commitment of serving TGI people in Los Angeles.
Local governments tend to tackle social issues such as homelessness, food insecurity, unaffordable housing, and inaccessible resources by funding community-based organizations (CBOs) to relay services and tackle those issues on the ground. Despite these governments providing funding to other programs and organizations in the city, many of them remain underutilized by TGI people and are oftentimes inaccessible due to discrimination and using practices that harm our community more than they help. By funding the vision of The TransLatin@ Coalition, the city would help us expand our capacity and expand the multitude of comprehensive services we provide our community.
The TransLatin@ Coalition is growing. We are growing our staff and our capacity to serve TGI people in Los Angeles – and soon we will have our own building and social enterprise where we will be able to expand our services, create jobs for TGI people, and hold a safe and sober space where each of us can feel honored, supported, and valued. Our organization has been an important bridge for transgender people across LA, as well as a safe haven for members of our community who have been disproportionately impacted by the barriers that society puts on us. And despite everything we are up against in our society, we will continue to grow and we will continue to be VISIBLE as we resist anti-trans hate and as we fight for a better future.
Join us in this historical campaign of asking the Los Angeles City Mayor and Council to FINALLY invest in the TGI people of LA, a community that has been neglected, underserved, and disproportionately disenfranchised in this city time and time again. We are TGI LA and we are here to stay.
FUND TGI LA!
#WeAreTGILA #InvestInTGILives