Fort Collins LGBTQ+ support group to protest anti-transgender legislation
On Friday, March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility, NoCoSafeSpace is hosting a protest in Old Town Square against the “500 bills already proposed in 2023” nationwide that the organization has deemed “anti-transgender legislation.”
“Legislators in America are trying to kill and erase us, but we aren’t going anywhere,” read a release from the organization announcing the protest.
In Colorado’s legislative session, the most notable anti-transgender bill was one requiring participation in sports to be tied to one’s “biological sex at birth”; the bill failed in February.
The protest is expected to be a gathering of transgender people, LGBTQ+ community members and allies and will include a “die-in” demonstration in which a group of people lie down as if they’re dead. The demonstration is intended to “start difficult and meaningful conversations around the rights, health care, safety and future” of the transgender community, according to NoCoSafeSpace’s social media.
“The dangers our transgender, non-binary communities, young people and families are facing have reached a crisis level that needs immediate action,” said Kimberly Chambers, founder of NoCoSafeSpace, in the release. “The sheer numbers of young people exploring and discovering their own diverse identities is expanding at a rate that educators and nonprofit programming couldn’t have anticipated.”
The gathering will start at 4 p.m. Friday and is expected to go until 6 p.m. with the demonstration happening about 5 p.m.
Transgender Day of Visibility is celebrated internationally and was started in 2009. The day is designed to “celebrate trans and nonbinary people and raise awareness of discrimination faced by trans people worldwide,” according to the LGBT Foundation.
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Molly Bohannon covers Fort Collins government for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins group to recognize trans visibility, protest legislation
