During a town hall on Wednesday, Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) was asked about her policies to protect LGBTQ+ rights.
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00:00Alright, this is from Laurel Ederman. If you want to stand up, can we recognize you?
00:07Alright, thank you, Laurel. She wants to know, what are your plans to protect trans rights and LGBTQ rights?
00:18So, this is something that, it's pretty devastating how they're targeting. It's the most cynical thing that I've ever seen in politics.
00:36That, you know, they used to divide and conquer based on whether or not gay marriage was, that was something that their race was united on and it used to divide the country.
00:46And we won on that issue by telling our stories, by people coming out, and that is something that they no longer can win on.
00:55And what they've done is they've actually poll tested and poll tested and tweaked the language to find the most divisive thing that they could say that brings confusion among Americans,
01:07that targets the most vulnerable kids in the nation. The people who are the most at risk of suicide, the people who are the most likely to have mental health issues,
01:20to face significant obstacles at school, at home, and those are our transgender youth. And, uh, right now, you know, we are, we're both signed on the Equality Act, uh, in Congress.
01:35And, of course, though, we're not going to be able to hear that on the floor because we don't have a majority to make that happen.
01:47But I want you to know that, um, we need to continue to speak out. I want to thank you for bringing this up. For our LGBTQ community, we see you, we are here for you, we are fighting for you.
02:00And I hope you all can join me in telling them that as well, with a regular boss.
02:15When I think about what I heard of being in Colorado, I had a mom come up to me, and we were doing a senior center event, and she came up and she said that she moved here, um, from Texas.
02:27And she started crying, and she said, thank you for making sure that I have a place to go where my daughter would be safe.
02:35And, uh, Colorado has become home for so many people who are moving here because they have access to abortion care.
02:44We know that they are protected here, that you can love who you want to love, and if you're a kid, you can't really love that.
02:59And if you're a kid, it's transgender, and it needs life-saving care, and in Colorado, you're going to have access to that.
03:09So I, I know that we have a lot to do when ultimately we have the power to pass federal protections, um, but to our LGBTQ community, also, you know, a couple came up to me last night, and they were crying because they're, they're so worried that they, what it looks like when they're targeted in the future with what they're seeing with the Trump administration.
03:35So, uh, we see you, we're fighting for you, and we're not going to stop.
03:45Could I, um, also say that this is a moment when all of us as friends and neighbors can put a hand on somebody and say, we're glad to be part of our community.
03:56We're glad to be part of our community.
03:58And, otherwise, I would say that about our immigrant community as well.
04:08Because we need to help it here.
04:12We need to help it here, and we're really glad to be part of it.