Madison Pride and Unity marchers emphasize need to look out for the transgender community – Madison.com

Tarik Akbik met Jerald Wright while working at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The two would talk about dogs, drink sangria and go to clubs, Akbik said. A year ago, on June 12, Akbik heard about the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub and found himself constantly refreshing web pages to see if anyone he knew was killed.

He found Wrights name.

Whats terrible about tragedies like this is theres 48 other people with a bunch of friends who are never going to have those moments with their friends again, he said.

Akbik spoke in front of a crowd on the Wisconsin Capitol steps on Sunday afternoon as Madison's LGBT+ community congregated for theEquality March for Unity and Pride. One purpose of the event was to remember the Pulse victims, and the other to call the community to action to prevent future tragedies. Speakers said that the transgender community is a population particularly in danger of victimization.

For the LGBT community, the 'T' often gets left behind, said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, an openly gay Democrat from Madison.

Sundays event was both a sister march with the National March for Pride and Unity in Washington, D.C., and a remembrance of the Orlando nightclub attack of a year ago, when a gunman entered a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing at least 49 people and wounding 53, making it the deadliest mass-shooting in the U.S.

The event was organized by the Rainbow Resistance of Madison, a recently organized group of LGBTQAI+ individuals and allies resisting the Trump agenda and all other strides by government officials to oppress our rights.

Several speakers referenced this fear of regression of rights in the midst of what they see as intensified hate.

You know what? I sure as hell am not going to stand by and watch as fearful and small minded people are standing in the way of our civil rights and the work that we have done and oftentimes attempting to roll back these rights. And I know you wont either, said state Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison.

President Donald Trump has not proclaimedJune as LGBT Pride Month, as former President Barack Obama did. Vice President Mike Pence has a contentious relationship with some in the LGBT community. In the past, Pence has called homosexuality a choice and supported a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to a man and a woman.

The queer community always experiences a lot of violence and oppression, but I think we all feel a particular closeness right now to those issues, said Justice Kestrel, who is transgender and represents the Madison Degenderettes, a feminist and gender queer club. I think were experiencing a lot of cultural and political backlash right now.

But people in the queer community arent the only ones experiencing cultural scapegoating from the current presidential administration, Kestrel said, pointing to the homeless, undocumented immigrants, people of color and Muslims as examples.

Kestrel also pointed to the transgender community as frequently targeted. Some conservatives may realize they have lost the fight against marriage equality and focus their energies on depriving the trans community of its rights, Kestrel said, such as with bathroom legislation that would force transgender people use the restroom corresponding with the gender on their birth certificates.

I think its really important that the LGB people here stand up for their queer brothers and sisters and siblings to fight for our rights, because were being left behind, and were particularly vulnerable, Kestral said, referencing high rates of homelessness, suicide, mental illness and suicide among the transgender population.

Kaci Ninedreams Sullivan, Creator of TransLiberation Art Coalition, argued that the transgender community is often swallowed up by the majority.

I was done watching as our communities were erased into childlessness, erased into prison, erased into homelessness, despair and death, Sullivan said. We are a capable group, willing and ready to love each other and fight for each other. And we hold so much power between us ... and it is a power that cannot be erased.

Fighting for each other means everyone must acknowledge their privilege, Ali Muldrow said.

Muldrow is the Director of Youth Programming at GSAFE, an organization that aims to create safe schools for the LGBTQ+ community. When she recently ran for a seat on the Madison School Board, she was asked why she chose to jeopardize her political appeal by revealing that she's bisexual and queer when she could pass for a straight woman.

When people like me hide who we are, we make it dangerous for everybody who cant, she said.

The Orlando victims' names were read aloud, followed by a moment of silence.

Khary Penebaker, a Democratic National Committee member representing Wisconsin and gun control activist, said he met with Wrights parents, Fred and Maria Wright.

When you listen to a family member, especially a mother who cant stop crying because of losing their child over gun violence, it changes you, he said. It asks you how much more are you willing to do so that no one has to go through and live the nightmare that Fred and Maria have to go through now.

Penebaker and others urged action to make sure tragedies like Orlando dont happen again.

One audience member, who did not want to be identified because he hasnt come out to his family, noted the importance of being himself. He wore a rainbow flag tied around his neck and rainbow eyeshadow.

For a really long time, I was afraid to be who I was, he said. I want others to be okay being themselves, too.

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Madison Pride and Unity marchers emphasize need to look out for the transgender community - Madison.com