TransActive Gender Project Joins Senators Merkley and Wyden to Support Transgender Youth and the LGBTQ+ Community
Open gallery
On Saturday, June 18th at 10:30 am, Jenn Burleton, TransActive Gender Project program director and transgender youth advocate, will join Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to celebrate the achievements of our LGBTQ+ community and push back against the horrifying wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation taking place across the country.
Along with Basic Rights Oregon and local LGBTQ+ leaders, Burleton will lend her voice on behalf of transgender and gender expansive children, youth, and their families. She plans to specifically address the existential threat of anti-trans legislation and hate, and the need for Federal protections guaranteeing access to trans-affirming healthcare for transgender/nonbinary adolescents and teens.
In a media release, Senator Merkley’s office states that Pride celebrations this year also come at a time when states around the country are passing a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws, particularly harming transgender youth. Together, this group will call on Congress to push back on the tide of discrimination and take concrete steps to enshrine protections for all LGBTQ+ Americans into Federal law.
Senator Merkley is the lead sponsor of the Equality Act which would amend the Civil Rights Act to ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans under the law by explicitly adding sexual orientation and gender identity to other longstanding bans on discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, access to credit, federal funding, and more.
TransActive Gender Project is housed at Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling and provides a holistic range of services and expertise to empower transgender and gender expansive children, youth, and their families in living healthy lives that are free of discrimination.
Event Details
WHEN: 10:30 a.m. PT, Saturday, June 18
WHERE: World Trade Center Training Room on the Mezzanine (Bridge) Level, 121 SW Salmon Street, Portland, Oregon 97205
Q&A time will be available for press immediately following remarks.
