Members and friends of Community Roots hold a vigil in downtown Wrangell on November 20, meant to remember transgendered individuals that had been murdered across the United States over the past year. The memorial was one of the relatively new group's various activities this year.
A Wrangell organization will this evening hold a storybook reading along with other communities across the country, to support transgender and non-binary youth.
The book is I Am Jazz, a children's book written by transgender teen Jazz Jennings, an online and television personality and youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Her book's intent is to introduce the concept of gender identity to young audiences.
"It's a good way to start the conversation, expose people to different walks of life," said Eli Michael, who will be taking part in the Wrangell reading.
In January Michael helped start Community Roots, a local social and support group for the LGBTQ community. "We hold monthly meetings," he explained, and has put on community events most months as well. The group held its first potluck in June, built a float for the July 4 parade and has held other walks, marches and drives.
The planned book reading is part of a broader program sponsored by the HRC Foundation and National Education Association. Establishing December 7 as a target day for the reading, the I Am Jazz presentations were inspired by the town of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, which in 2015 expressed support for a local student during a public reading of the book.
A scheduled reading at the student's school had previously been canceled after Florida group Liberty Counsel
threatened to sue the district. The school board had responded by adopting accommodating measures for its transgender students.
Wrangell's reading will be held at the community center gym multipurpose room this evening at 6 p.m., and Michael said the session will be followed up by a question and answer session.
Community Roots is in the process of getting non-profit status, and will organize a governing board at that time. At the moment it is more informal, and has support from similar groups in Anchorage and Juneau, like Southeast Alaska Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
Michael explained that being LGBTQ in Alaska can be difficult, as the state lacks formal protections for jobs and housing. Difficulty for the community varies from place to place, however, and he said the Wrangell group has been seeing encouraging support.
"The support's been phenomenal from all ages," he said, and activities can see between a dozen and 30 participants one month to the next. "So far Wrangell's been incredibly accepting and open."
Reader Comments(0)