Last Sunday afternoon, a welcoming and inclusive group gathered in North Cambridge’s Mayor Thomas W. Danehy Park to play frisbee, softball and other games from chess to the corn-hole toss and to protest state governments across the US introducing bills to ban trans students from competing in school sports.
“We really just want to build a community,” 18-year-old event co-organizer Esmee Silverman told the Boston Globe. “We just want people to play sports with their friends, honestly. We wanted to build community and protest the anti-transgender bills.”
Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui’s office cosponsored the event, called “Let Trans Athletes Play,” along with the Mass. Commission on LGBTQ Youth, the Cambridge LGBTQ, Commission, Fenway Health and GLSEN Massachusetts. Dozens of young people attended, as well as some local officials.
Reports the Globe:
State Representative Steve Owens [of Watertown] brought his wife and two children to the event. One of his sons joined in on kickball, while Owens learned about local legislation regarding inclusive LGBTQ+ curriculum.
“I am educating myself thanks to the youth here,” Owens said. “So, activism works.”
During opening remarks, Silverman told those gathered: “We are under attack. Bill after bill has been signed trying to chip away at our lives.”
No more “transgender kids under attack,” she said. Instead, make it “transgender kids fighting back. Not under attack, fighting back!”
Aside from providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth to play, organizers also sought to “send a loud and clear message that transgender athletes are welcome, valid and loved.”
Read the complete Boston Globe article here.
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