Sonoma County residents rally for transgender community on Day of Visibility

Dozens gathered in downtown Santa Rosa on Friday afternoon to show support for transgender people as lawmakers in other states push restrictive bills targeting their health care, identity and public existence.

About 60 people converged on Old Courthouse Square to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility. Standing along Third Street, they waved the blue, pink and white transgender flag and carried homemade signs displaying messages to support transgender rights.

Transgender Day of Visibility dates to 2009, but Friday’s participants said this year’s celebration is especially significant given the introduction of anti-trans laws, mostly in Republican-led states.

“It’s absolutely important even though we’re in a supportive community. We’ve got to support those in other states,” said Tiesa Meskis, a 47-year-old transgender woman from Santa Rosa.

There are more than 435 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the country, and 11 states have passed bans on gender-affirming care, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

The organization also reports 300-plus transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed nationwide since 2013, although circumstances vary and it’s unclear how many deaths involved hate crimes.

In a statement commemorating Transgender Day, President Joe Biden denounced violent and political attacks on transgender people, who he described as “brave.”

“These attacks are un-American and must end,” he said.

Locally, Meskis said people are trying to come to terms with identifying as transgender or come from religious families and worry about being rejected by loved ones.

She estimated the known local transgender population includes at least 100 people in Santa Rosa but thousands in all of Sonoma County.

“It’s not big, it’s not small,” she said. “There are actually some afraid to make themselves known, which I think is sad.”

Participants in Friday’s rally cheered whenever passing motorists honked their horns in support. Petaluma resident Kawai Carvalho, who is nonbinary, brought his two young children to the rally and said it was important for them to understand transgender rights.

“We have our biological family, but also our transgender family,” said Carvalho, 45.

A second rally was planned just under 2 miles away at Fourth Street and Farmers Lane, where Santa Rosa resident Kristin Nicks, 47, sat by herself with a sign that said “Protect trans lives.”

Nicks, who is bisexual and a mother of a nonbinary teenager, planned to show support for the trans community even if it meant sitting by the intersection alone.

“I’m a feminist and I have a strong personality and I just think it’s really important to stand up for minorities and women,” Nicks said. “Anything LGBTQ-friendly is important to me.”

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi