After Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed, LGBTQ youths in Las Vegas discussed how sad they felt, said Peter Neavez, the youth resource specialist at the LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada.
“If this small population of LGBTQ youth is feeling that,” he said, “that can get extended nationwide. What’s happening state to state affects all trans youth in every other state.”
In Nevada, Gov. Steve Sisolak declared today Transgender Day of Visibility to celebrate the achievements and resiliency of transgender people and communities.
“The fact that the governor is here today, making a stand and saying, ‘I see the trans youth here,’ that’s huge,” Neavez, a 23-year-old trans man, said Wednesday.
Sisolak took a tour of the center on Wednesday, learning about the programs available to LGBTQ youths and medical care available for the community. Afterward, he read the declaration to make Thursday Transgender Day of Visibility.
“We need to do what we can to make Nevada and Las Vegas (and) Clark County more welcoming, more diverse and more loving,” Sisolak said Wednesday, “when it comes to people of all races, creeds, colors, sexual persuasion, whatever it might be.”
John Waldron, CEO of the center, said it was “more critical than ever” to support the trans and gender-diverse community.
“To have our governor stand here at the center and be able to present this to us means everything to our community,” Waldron said.
Although the proclamation is more symbolic than anything else, Nevada has several laws and nondiscrimination statutes protecting LGBTQ people, especially compared with other states.
Nevada’s statutes protect LGBTQ people in employment, education, public accommodations, housing and credit sectors, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Utah, by comparison, has protections in the employment and housing fields but not for education, public accommodations and credit.
The LGBT Movement Advancement Project rated Nevada high in terms of equality regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, and it lists all of the laws in place protecting and helping the LGBTQ community.
“I’m proud that Nevada is a diverse state. We are leading the nation in a lot of these areas,” Sisolak said. “And unlike some of my governor colleagues who are going the opposite direction, we’re doing what we can to make people feel comfortable.”
Of course, there are still more actions to take to help the LGBTQ community. The LGBT Movement Advancement Project, for instance, notes that there are no state family leave laws in place that are LGBTQ-inclusive in Nevada.
AJ Huth, the youth program manager at the center, said Nevada needed to enforce the laws more, such as one that creates training and guidance for foster care workers statewide to be better informed about LGBTQ youths.
The center has led some training, Huth said, but there have been some negative experiences.
But having legislators show support for LGBTQ people “might help open some people’s hearts and minds,” he said.
“We’re really into meeting people where they’re at, trying to provide education, because we’ve seen how far a little bit of education can go, turning people from a concept into human beings,” Huth added. “That’s where a lot of the fear comes from: the unknown. They don’t really know people who are trans or gay.”
Neavez said he thought there needed to be more of an emphasis on what happened in schools, where LGBTQ students can face bullying, harassment and have to wonder if they will be able to use the bathroom they want to use.
“There needs to be more protection for the students,” Neavez said. “Because at the end of the day, they’re kids. Kids already have enough to be worrying about: grades, college, scholarships, or ‘Where am I going to get my next meal?’ They don’t need to be worrying about where (and) if they can go to the bathroom, and if their teachers are going to be accepting of who they are as a person.”