Members of Tucson’s Multifaith for Pride Coalition are celebrating the recent passage of a city council resolution that reaffirms the rights of transgender individuals in our community while, at the same time, recognizing the “disproportionate risks of harassment, violence, barriers to essential services, and legislative threats that undermine their human dignity.”
Lynn Davis, director of the Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner Community Action Project at Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, is a founding member of the coalition and serves on the steering committee along with colleagues from Unitarian Universalist, Lutheran, Methodist, United Church of Christ, and Episcopal traditions.
Over several weeks, coalition members crafted language for the resolution and sought support from the mayor, vice mayor, individual council members, and the chief of police before submitting their draft to the city attorney for approval. The coalition also built a robust “batter’s box” of community leaders, many of whom identify as trans- or gender-diverse, who agreed to lend their names in support of this initiative. Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz (Ward 1), along with Council Members Karen Uhlich (Ward 6) and Rocque Perez (Ward 5) advanced the resolution for consideration.
The coalition took on this project for a few different reasons. Members sought to recognize actions that the City of Tucson had taken over the years to establish foundational protections prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations, often long before such protections existed at the state level. They also felt that it was important for elected leaders to hear clearly that faith leaders from many traditions unequivocally and without exception support their transgender and gender diverse neighbors. “Compassion, dignity, and the protection of the vulnerable are values shared across our faiths,” said Pastor Naomi Hartman from the Lutheran Church of the Foothills. “Transgender and gender-diverse people are part of our congregations, our families, and our city, and their rights matter deeply to us.”
The Gumbiner Project engages in this work because “Judaism asks us to build communities rooted in compassion, justice, and truth,” Davis says. “Welcoming the stranger, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and embracing the diversity of creation are not abstract ideals; they are daily obligations.”
The resolution passed with enthusiastic and unanimous approval and was accompanied by a proclamation from Mayor Regina Romero. The proclamation reads, in part, that “the City of Tucson honors the courage, resilience, brilliance, and cultural leadership of transgender and gender-diverse community members, and declares that Tucson will remain a safe, inclusive, and affirming home for all.
You may read the full text of the resolution here.
