The California State Assembly voted Wednesday to declare August “Transgender History Month,” the first of its kind in the nation.
According to Sacramento-area Fox affiliate KTXL-40:
The California State Assembly has voted to officially recognize August as “Transgender History Month,” beginning in 2024. The resolution, which passed on Wednesday, makes California the first state in the United States to have a month that officially recognizes the history and contributions of transgender people.
Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), the bill’s author, said, “I couldn’t be more proud to have introduced legislation that will designate August as the first statewide Transgender History month in the nation.”
He continued, “I believe that as Californians our strongest defense against the anti-trans agenda is just to tell the truth. Let’s tell the truth about transgender people’s lives, and let’s lift up the history of the transgender Californians who left their mark on our great state.”
The resolution, introduced by Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), says:
WHEREAS, The suppression of gender variance among indigenous California cultures by Spanish and later Anglo settlers was a foundational event of the history of the state …
WHEREAS, The social fluidity of Gold Rush-era California attracted countless people who lived transgender lives in the mid-19th century …
WHEREAS, San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood has been known as a residential district for transgender people since the second half of the 19th century …
WHEREAS, The month of August has particular significance to the trans community as it is the month when the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots are commemorated. One of the first LGBT civil rights uprising in the United States, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots took place in August of 1966 in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, which has now been designated as the world’s first transgender cultural district; and
WHEREAS, Supporting the transgender community by designating August as Transgender History Month will create a culture led by research, education, and scholarly recognition of the contributions of transgender Californians to our great state’s history, and will educate future generations of Californians on the importance of this history; now, therefore, be itResolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Assembly declares the month of August of each year as Transgender History Month; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
A statement by the Democratic legislators behind the resolution declared:
Every August hereafter will be known in California as Transgender History Month. California has long been at the forefront of the transgender liberation movement. But transgender and gender-nonconforming Americans are being politicized and dehumanized in recent culture wars and their contributions to the history of the United States are being erased.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director for Equality California, was quoted by CBS News as saying: “Especially now, in a time that we are seeing a constant, week-after-week attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, especially the transgender community. … [Transgender History Month is] really a reminder that California stands behind the trans community and now more than ever we are not giving up on reinforcing that value.”
Several California cities declared August to be Transgender History Month in August 2022.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
