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Meeting metadata file x174880.json.
Transcript file 2025-07-04_general_mayor-signs-bill-strengthening-gender-af_x174880.srt.
-All right. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here on what will be and is a very exciting announcement and celebration. I'm only going to introduce -- we have several stars that are going to speak, and I'm not referring to myself. The first star will be Nakita Venus, the executive director of Seattle's LGBTQ Center. Thank you for welcoming us to your home where all the action happens for our advocacy. Many of you know Nakita has extensive experience in community advocacy and organizational leadership and community engagement and is truly committed to this fight that we're all in together. And so I'll take it over after Nakita. But, Nakita, welcome us -- welcome us to your house. -First off, thank you so much, Mayor Harrell, for that introduction, and thank you to everyone here today for joining us at Seattle's LGBTQ+ Center. And I am honored to welcome you all here today and joining us in our space and the place we like to call home. The Center has been supporting local 2SLGBTQIA+ community for 30 years now. We are lucky to be located in Capitol Hill with a lush legacy of queer and trans activists who made the city what it is and continue to be a place of belonging for so many of us. The Center started with individuals providing HIV testing at the height of the AIDS epidemic when our government would not. We expanded our services and reach to what you see today, a community center and clinic with over 12 programs dedicated to centering the needs of our most marginalized, namely, trans Black and Brown adults and youth. And, over the next 30 years, we will continue to grow in our services, meeting the needs of more unhoused folks, more sex workers, more trans people. This ordinance signifies that our work and the work of so many others is supported and to be protected by our local government. While I am not surprised by the continued widespread political attacks on our queer and trans community, I am anxious, angry, and tired. I am tired that our community has to be this resilient, this consistently for this long. But we are, and we will continue to make it through all this next set of challenges the way we always have, by being in community with one another. We know our queerness and our transness deserves to be honored and celebrated. We know our joy is beautiful. And we know our rights are worth defending. In contrast, I am surprised by the local institutions that have stepped back in their commitments to protecting and serving our communities out of fear of repercussions. The reality is that we need people to fight for this healthcare. I hope that those who claim to be our allies take this moment as an opportunity to be loud in their support for queer and trans people and be courageous in their actions to fight for this life-saving, gender-affirming healthcare and reproductive healthcare, signaling to not only those who live here but those who are in need of a safer place to call home or services that this city, that Seattle has a robust community ready and waiting to serve them. For this reason, I am thankful to the City of Seattle, to the mayor's office, and to everyone who have fought so hard to pass this ordinance. This ordinance takes the first step in protecting our rights and protecting the healthcare providers who worked tirelessly to ensure that everyone has access to reproductive services and gender-affirming care. So thank you again all so much for being here in our space and in our home and for showing your support time and time again. And I am excited to hand it back off to Mayor Harrell. So thank you all. -Thank you, Jessica. I told Jessica to pass the bowl around for donations after. We always try and raise money. Thank you, Jessica, very much. A few thank yous before I get into the substance of what I'd like to say, I want to thank -- she doesn't -- Jessica doesn't know this, but Jessica McHegg is standing with us. She's an employee at the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection who wrote my office about the dehumanizing impact of federal action as a transgender woman that -- that, quite honestly, Nakita spoke eloquently about. And she's here with her wife, Karen. And I sometimes say, where do you find inspiration to do whatever you do? Where do you find it? Sometimes it could be a song, a poem, a speech. And it was your email to our office that inspired many of us to, as you say, the theme for this year's pride parade is loud. Be loud. Be loud. Be loud. Be committed. So I want to also thank that we have council president Sarah Nelson here and council members Solomon and -- why are you standing behind? Joe, you -- politicians, you've got to be where everyone could see you. Hollingsworth here. You've got to be -- used to be right here. And we have one-third of the Council here, so I don't think we're breaking the OPMA quite, quite yet. I want to thank in addition to Jessica the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, whose members collaborated with our office clearly on this bill and [preview truncated]