Last week, newly-elected Mayor Gray’s Director of the Office of GLBT Affairs, Jeffrey Richardson, attended a DC Trans Coalition meeting. Members of DCTC educated the Director about the needs of trans communities in the District, and we were assured that trans people (along with youth and aging LGBT people) would be among the administration’s top concerns.
For the occasion, DCTC prepared a list of priorities for the Gray Administration, and shared this with the Director. We broke it down by agency and listed the most pressing and achievable goals for each. Among our list were:
- End the Prostitution Free Zones and move toward decriminalizing sex work;
- Nominate one or more trans people to serve on the Commission on Human Rights;
- Enforce the gender-neutral bathroom provisions of the DC Human Rights Act;
- Restore funding to vital trans-sensitive social services like HIPS and T.H.E.;
- Develop plans to address unemployment in the trans community;
- Expand the Dept. of Corrections and MPD trans policies to include other criminal justice agencies in the District;
- Fund the DC Trans Needs Assessment
..and much more. You can read the comprehensive list here.