LGBTQ+ community members and allies want more queer folks to be visible in the San Gabriel Valley.
Around 35 people, including community leaders and residents, gathered at the region’s 2nd annual State of Queer and Transgender Pride event, held Thursday, Nov. 16, at City of Hope’s Cooper Auditorium in Duarte. The event — hosted by the El-Monte-based San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center — included a dinner, panel discussions about youth and the community’s future, vendors and resources.
In their remarks, San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center board president Camila Camaléon and vice president Christian Port highlighted the center’s achievements, programs, and future inclusive efforts to support the region’s LGBTQ+ community.
Officials celebrated hosting the first-ever SGV Pride Tour in June during Pride Month, which included eight different cities hosting events that brought in thousands of residents, celebrating and standing together for Pride. They also recognized the nonprofit’s ongoing Building Pride Campaign to help increase LGBTQ+ visibility and support local cities, schools and organizations taking a stand.
“We heard loud and clear that LGBT residents of the San Gabriel Valley want more safe spaces to be their true, authentic selves,” said Port.
Though highlighting wins in LGBTQ+ representation, Port and Camaléon also acknowledged growing hate and rhetoric over the last year.
The California Department of Justice reported a rise in anti-trans, gay and lesbian hate crimes in 2022 in its inaugural State of Pride Report. Between 2021 and 2022, the report states, there were over 391 reported hate crime events motivated by sexual orientation bias — an increase of 29% from 2021.
Camaléon — the San Gabriel Valley LGBT Center’s first trans woman of color board president — said that being transgender “can still be met with hostility and prejudice… across the United States, we’ve witnessed an unprecedented wave of legislation and attacks against queer and transgender people.”
At least 15 states have passed laws that restrict or ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
In the San Gabriel Valley and greater Los Angeles region, some schools and public places have become a battleground for LGBTQ+ issues — from the burning of a rainbow flag at North Hollywood school in May, to heated protests in school districts like Glendale, Pasadena and Glendora.
Recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed several laws that protect LGBTQ+ students and their privacy — including AB 233, the Transgender Youth Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of minors applying to legally change their gender or sex identification by sealing those court records; and SB 345, which protects insurance providers against the enforcement of other states’ laws that criminalize or limit reproductive health care services, or gender-affirming health care.
Over the summer, L.A. County officials created an LGBTQ+ Commission to expand gender-affirming care and programming.
Having such public Pride and awareness events, Camaleon said, are “stark reminders of the challenges our community continues to face.”
Officials highlighted the Transgender Day of Remembrance on Monday, Nov. 20, honoring transgender people who were killed. They also recognized the ongoing Transgender Awareness Week.
“Our commitment (is) to a future where events like Transgender Day of Remembrance are commemorations of a past struggle, not a current reality,” Camaléon said.
Angel Silva, club director of the Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley, said that hosting the State of Pride event has been “complicated,” but things have “gotten a lot better.”
“I feel like if I was asked in 2020, we wouldn’t be where we’re at,” Silva said. “The thing about the area is that we’re prepared to support the LGBT community — and it really took the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center, as well as the cities partnering together, to host our first Pride in 2021, led by us. It was great to see that the whole city celebrated Pride, finally.”
After the pandemic, the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center reopened its doors to the public again in its new location in El Monte. The nonprofit’s mission is to create a welcoming, inclusive environment for individuals of all orientations and gender identities, and aims to do so through community resources and culturally competent programming.
For more information and upcoming events, visit sgvlgbtq.org.