Naiymah Sanchez said she did not appreciate Pennsylvania’s size until she started working for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
“You don’t really grasp how big this state is, all of the land we need to cover and minds we need to change,” said Sanchez, who works as the organization’s transgender-advocacy coordinator.
She will work to show the public which minds need to be changed when she co-hosts a community discussion July 11.
Trans Rights in PA with Naiymah Sanchez and ACLU-PA’s Youth Leadership Outreach Team will take place at Smokin’ Betty’s, with ACLU-PA intake attorney Michelin Cahill co-facilitating. Free food and happy-hour drink specials will be served.
The event will include Sanchez speaking on her lived experiences as a transgender woman and on the general state of trans rights in the state. Meanwhile, Cahill will discuss related lawsuits the organization is undertaking. They include a case in which a student filed a lawsuit against the Boyertown Area School District when he claimed his privacy was violated while getting changed in front of a trans male student. A separate case involves Niara Burton, a transgender woman who is suing to be transferred to a women’s prison after spending four years in men’s prisons.
Sanchez said the event has not been “mapped out” and the format will be left as an open discussion for individuals to learn.
She noted that intersectionality plays a role in the marginalization of trans people.
“Being trans is not just one issue,” Sanchez said. “You can be trans and Muslim. You can be trans and undocumented. You can be trans and black. I think an attack on one community is an attack on all communities.”
While Sanchez noted the current presidential administration has taken actions to roll back rights for marginalized communities, she said some progress has been made locally. For instance, when President Donald Trump rescinded the protections offered by Title IX, which allowed students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities, representatives from the Philadelphia School District and several others said they would not remove these protections.
“That was a harsh feeling but knowing that the school board backed up the students and are still allowing trans students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their identity, I think we’re in a good state,” Sanchez said.
However, this is not necessarily true for the rest of Pennsylvania.
“A lot of freedoms and privileges we have here in Philadelphia, we don’t have in Central PA,” she said.
Overall, Sanchez said she hopes the community discussion will provide education, along with “good networking, good food and conversation.”
“I can’t ask for a better night,” she said.