Mountain View advocates rallied Tuesday, March 31, for the city’s first-ever demonstration on Transgender Day of Visibility.
“Even in the cold and intermittent rain, we saw music, protest and real connection,” said organizer Mariya Genzel, of the Mountain View advocacy group It’s Blue Turn Indivisible. “It was about making it clear that trans rights are human rights, and that standing up for one of us is standing up for all of us.”
Transgender Day of Visibility, annually observed on March 31, celebrates transgender people and calls attention to the discrimination and barriers they continue to face. The event was founded in 2009.
“I went to the celebration because people I love are trans, and I want them – and every other trans person in our community – to know that they are loved,” said Tracy Piombo of Mountain View, who attended the event. “And not loved in a passive, ‘tolerated’ kind of way, but that they have allies who will fight for their rights: their right to live and to love and to be joyfully themselves.”
The rally began with a demonstration along El Camino Real near Castro Street and finished with an event in Gateway Park.
The event featured remarks from Mountain View Mayor Emily Ann Ramos, Reverend Tom Harris of First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte CEO Stacy Cross, chair of the Santa Clara branch of the American Civil Liberties Union Victor Sin and other trans activists.
In her speech, Ramos said that Mountain View residents often referred to a “community for all.”
“It is something we practice every day, in every decision, and in how we treat one another,” she said. “Let us be a community that not only celebrates visibility, but protects it; a community that not only welcomes people, but stands up for them; a community that truly means it when we say ‘everyone belongs here.’”
Ramos said in an email on April 2 it was especially important for people in the local government to publicly show support for the transgender community because their freedoms were under attack by the federal government.
“I believe in government and how it can be used to help people and lead a community to do good. When we see it used in an opposite way, we have to counterbalance it,” she said.
IdaRose Sylvester, a local organizer and advocate who attended the rally, echoed those sentiments.
“We need to actively show up every day and publicly support our trans community, and fight for their rights, especially at this time when the community is under attack and legal protections are being undermined. Our trans friends and family need our support more than ever,” Sylvester said.
Genzel said the event was successful because it made a formidable, visible show of support for the local transgender community and its allies.
“It was about making sure people feel less alone, more supported, and know there are others here who have their back,” she said.
