Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Council Member Bottcher's remarks on transgender rights legislation
0:04:04
·
127 sec
Council Member Erik D. Bottcher expresses his support for the package of legislation aimed at fortifying the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people in New York City. He discusses the challenges faced by the transgender community and emphasizes the importance of the legislation in helping them live their lives freely.
- Bottcher highlights the success of right-wing efforts to politicize transgender lives, partly due to the lack of widespread personal connections with transgender individuals.
- He stresses that transgender people simply want to live their lives, take care of their families, and have access to healthcare, employment, and housing.
- Bottcher thanks his colleagues, including co-chair Council Member Tiffany Cabán, for their efforts in passing this legislation.
Erik D. Bottcher
0:04:04
Thank you so much chair Lewis.
0:04:06
Today I'm proud to be a member of this legislative body which is stepping up to fortify the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people here in New York City.
0:04:20
The right wing has been successful at politicizing the lives of trans people.
0:04:33
And one of the reasons that they've been able to do that successfully is because, you know, unlike gays and lesbians where most people know us in their lives, like, you know, almost anywhere in the country now, you either have a a relative or a coworker or someone in your community who's gay or lesbian, a lot of people don't know trans people just because they're so few in number numerically.
0:04:59
But I truly believe that if more people knew transgender people like like we do, they would know that they are just people like you and me who just wanna live their lives.
0:05:14
They just wanna live their lives and take care of themselves and their families and be happy and have health care and employment and a roof over their heads.
0:05:27
It's the the the vicious discrimination that they that they encounter day in and day out makes it incredibly difficult for them to just do that, just live their lives.
0:05:40
So that's why this legislation is important to to help them just be who they are in The United States Of America, which is supposed to be a country where you are allowed to be free and to be who you are.
0:05:56
So that's why I'm proud that we're passing this package of legislation today.
0:06:01
I wanna thank my co chair, council member Tiffany Kuban.
0:06:05
I wanna thank my legislative and budget director Hannah Moses and everyone else who helped make this possible.