On the sunny, chilly and brisk morning of Nov. 13, Chicago’s Advisory Council on LGBTQ Issues member and LGBTQ+ activist Robert Castillo hosted and emceed the first annual Trans Pride Flag-raising ceremony in Logan Square Park near the Centennial Monument to mark the start of Transgender Awareness Week (Nov. 13-19).
The ceremony was co-sponsored by Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th Ward) and the John Pennycuff Legacy Fund (JPLF).
Quezada, who represents Logan Square, said, “We are gathered here in community, solidarity and love.” He added how proud he is to represent such a diverse ward with many LGBTQ+ people among its population. Quezada said it is especially important to uplift the trans community because of the “extreme violence” they have faced in recent years and what the federal government has done to “strip away the rights and access to resources and services our trans people need to live and thrive.”
He further spoke about the need to stand united “in the struggle” until the government and economy works for the trans community. Quezada also noted his work when he was a Cook County Commission to get the trans femicide ordinance passed.
Chicago Ald. Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez (33rd Ward) spoke about the city council passing the bodily autonomy and protection of gender affirming care ordinances. She said in these moments it is “important to pause and make sure we stay present with both the incredible pain this trans community has had to endure and also the incredible pride in the solidarity we offer each other and the resilience demonstrated each day.”
Equality Illinois CEO Channyn Lynne Parker said that, during this week and on the upcoming Trans Day of Remembrance, “You will hear a great deal about the injustices trans people face and the names of people who were taken from us far too soon. People’s families who are waiting for answers and justice and those names absolutely deserve to be spoken and lives need to be remembered.”
Parker said it is also important for trans and non-binary people to remember “the extraordinary odds against you even standing here in the first place” as a small part of the worldwide population “across generations and centuries.”
Brave Space Alliance Development Manager Troy Taylor said moving to Chicago almost two years ago allowed him “to start my transition as a queer trans man.” He spoke about the six years of his life serving in the U.S. military, which he called a great honor. But Taylor said it is a greater honor to serve the trans community and “fight for the ability of every single Trans American to have the exact same rights” as cisgender people.
Brave Space Alliance Community Health Program Manager Monica Brown said she has worked to help the trans community in many capacities since 2018. She called on everyone to hire more trans people so they are able to participate fully in society.
CALOR Transgender and Gender Diverse Program Lead Emily Jade Aguilar spoke about the duty to fight for freedom and win as well as love and protect one another. She uplifted undocumented trans immigrant Tania Cordova, who is still in a detention center, and reminded everyone about the other undocumented trans people who are afraid to leave their homes to receive access to gender affirming care and/or their HIV medications.
Life is Work Program Manager Jae Rice said that, even though Chicago is one of the most medically safe places in the world, it is also one of the most dangerous places to be a Black trans woman, due to the number of murders which have occurred over the past 10 years. Rice wants allies to turn into “accomplices and co-conspirators” who will fight for full trans liberation and dignity.
Chicago Therapy Collective Development and Strategic Priorities Director and Chicago’s Advisory Council on LGBTQ Issues member Stephanie Skora said Chicago is a haven for trans people writ-large built with “blood, sweat and tears” over the years.
Chicago Teachers Union LGBTQIA+ Committee Chair and music teacher Michaela Blake Lascano said awareness of LGBTQ+ people and issues is not enough because “awareness without safety just creates more violence, awareness without action is complicity and awareness means nothing if you’re not willing to stand up and fight for the rights of trans people of all ages.”
Lascano said although there were many wins for the trans community during this years mid-term elections there were also “candidates who won their positions by throwing trans kids under the bus … and anti-trans ballot measures targeting trans youth passed in both blue and red states including Washington State, Colorado, Arizona and Nebraska. We are sending a message that trans lives are expendable.”
Chicago’s Advisory Council on LGTBQ+ Issues member and Howard Brown Health TGNC Surgical Health Navigator Ella Jasso said she grew up in Logan Square and as a young person she could never have imagined a Trans Pride Flag would be “flown by a community that wasn’t even raised up or acknowledged” in the past.
City of Chicago Director of LGTBQ+ Affairs Antonio King lifted up the “champions who speak for you in a room when you aren’t there.” He also spoke about the trans elders in Chicago who did activist work during a time when it was even harder to do so. King said he wants the LGBTQ+ policy plan he and his team created, with help from everyday queer/trans Chicagoans, to “have the foundation to move forward” with a proper budget no matter who is in the position he currently holds or who is the Mayor.
BQAC Co-Founder and longtime bisexual activist Michael Oboza donated his Trans Pride Flag for the ceremony.
