Community Grand Marshal: An individual or group that has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the LGBTQ community over an extended period of years and/or has made an exceptional contribution in the past year.
TRANS YOUTH
In 2022, a record 240 anti-LGBTQ bills were proposed in state legislatures across the U.S., primarily targeting transgender youth. Whether limiting or eliminating access to sports, bathrooms, inclusive education, or life-saving healthcare, these bills have created a hostile environment for our transgender youth from Maine to California. Being a youth is difficult enough without the added pressures of America’s legislative bodies conspiring to outlaw your existence.
In the face of this hostility and struggle, it’s more important than ever to celebrate the beauty, joy, resilience, and brilliance of our transgender youth, here in San Diego and everywhere around the world. Young people have been tasked with addressing disastrous social and environmental issues created by the generations before them. They are at the forefront of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, and are leading with incomparable bravery and strength. Let us give Transgender youth their roses now, as they fight for the survival, visibility, and joy of all LGBTQ+ people.