'Bullsh*t': Summer Lee Calls Out Trump Administration's Treatment Of Transgender People

2 days ago

At a 'Transgender Day Visibility' rally in Washington, DC, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) spoke about supporting transgender people.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Hey everybody, I'm Summer Lee. I am proud to represent Western Pennsylvania in Congress

00:05I'm proud to be here with you, and I'm even prouder to be an auntie of my trans nibbling

00:10So, you know, I didn't come here today to play around

00:14I know that none of you all is nice out here before the rain comes and I know none of us came out here

00:19to mince words to

00:21Sanitize anything or to pretend that anything that we're dealing with is as cute and happy and we can do both right because we can

00:27Have joy and we can also resist

00:30We can lift up our our humanity and we can also fight back against villainy

00:34And that's what we are going to be doing a lot these days. I

00:39want to say that what's happening right now, especially to our trans siblings is

00:47Cruel is bullshit and it is not normal and we will stand up against it, but it is not just policy disagreement

00:54It is not a debate

00:55It is by design and it's targeting and they are purposely targeting some of the most marginalized people in our society

01:03So let me tell you where it looks like where I come from in Pittsburgh a city where we have world-class

01:10Medicine world-class hospitals

01:12We've got families who are being denied life-saving care for their trans babies at UPMC Children's Hospital

01:18And just for perspective that is the only Children's Hospital that we have in our region

01:24These are parents doing everything and their power to care for to affirm and

01:30Stand by their children and they're being turned away not in some, you know red for off-red state

01:37It's right here in our backyard

01:38This is what Trump's anti-trans agenda looks like

01:42Even without a national ban the fear the pressure and the silence they create is doing the work for them

01:48It's making health care providers hesitate. It's making institutions retreat

01:53It's making families feel isolated or abandoned or unsafe

01:58And I just want to say it here when you make it harder for children to be seen to be loved to be treated with

02:04Dignity, that's not just a policy failure. That is a moral failure. These attacks were seen day in and day out

02:10They're not just anti-trans attacks first of all because trans folks are our human beings

02:14So all of the attacks whether they're anti-immigrant anti-education

02:18Anti-health care anti-housing

02:21Anti-genocide or pro-genocide, whatever it may be

02:23All of those things are harming our communities and in the time that we stand up against all of it

02:29But let me say the reason why he's attacking all of those things is because he knows what every authoritarian knows

02:37organized people

02:39organized workers

02:41Marginalized people who have autonomy and don't feel a race

02:45That is a threat to their power and that's why they're scared

02:58But they're not a talking point and we're certainly not political football for folks

03:03Cruel policymakers to kick around for headlines for donations for attention and their attention-seeking

03:10Behaviors our workers our families our friends are worth fighting for and when we do that

03:17They will know the power that is in spaces like this

03:20When they hear us and when they see us and when we stand up

03:24They will know that they will know that we will not stand for their authoritarian bullcrap wherever and whatever in whichever ways

03:31They try to perpetrate it. So know this on today. We are standing for our trans siblings

03:36But tomorrow we are going to stand for everybody who is being attacked because an attack on one is an attack on all and we

03:44know

03:46Liberation is tied together

03:47so whether you're black or you're brown or you're immigrant or you've been here for a long time or you're trans or you're queer or

03:53You're straight or you are working class or you're in labor. Whoever you are. I'm telling you. This is your moment

03:59This is our moment

04:02Get away

04:03We're coming for one of us

04:04Then we are all laying down and letting them have us all and I'll be damned and I'll be damned and I know you'll be

04:10Damned if that's how we go down in the year 2025

04:14So gear up get in the fight stay and fight and trim because we will not stand down

04:19So thank you so much for being here

'Bullsh*t': Summer Lee Calls Out Trump Administration's Treatment Of Transgender People

Category

Transcript

Recommended