City Of Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board Issues Statement On HB1/SB10

From the City of Birmingham:

March 8, 2021

The following is a statement from the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board, which advises the Mayor’s Office and the city’s LGBTQ+ liaison on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community in the city of Birmingham. Mayor Woodfin established the board in 2018.

Statement

Birmingham is a welcoming community for all and that includes transgender and gender-diverse youth. We pride ourselves on being a place for world-class medical care and human rights activism. In just one year, we will welcome people from all over the world as we host the World Games 2022. It would be a shame to dim the light that is shining so brightly on our city by restricting essential healthcare to an oppressed segment of our community. The “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act.” – known as House bill-1 and companion Senate bill-10 – has passed through committees, the full Senate, and is heading to the Alabama House.

The legislation would criminalize physicians and pharmacists who provide lifesaving healthcare for transgender and gender-diverse youth, care that is the expert standard of care. The bill further demands that school personnel out students who are trans or gender-diverse to their parents or guardians, compromising the health and wellbeing of the students they are meant to support. Inserting the state into these medical decisions is not only intrusive but also dangerous for the very children this bill claims to defend. In fact, the American Psychological Association (APA) just recently reaffirmed that gender diversity is real and a natural part of the human experience.

As a community of youth-serving professionals, educators, and community members whose lived experience reflect those affected by this legislation, we condemn these bills with a unified voice. Politics have no place in the private, trusting, space where doctors work with their patients. The medicine in question follows a standardized evidence-based gender affirmative model of pediatric care endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and it’s 67,000 members nationwide, including the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. This bill invades the sacred communication between physicians, parents and patients, as well as school personnel and students, which protects and enriches the well-being of all youth. We urge all those across the political spectrum to use their voice to oppose this incredibly harmful legislation.

Morissa Ladinsky

MD, Pediatrician, Birmingham, AL

Anthony Waller

LGBTQ+ Advisory Board Co-Chair

Brianna Patterson, MPH – LGBTQ+ Advisory Board Co-Chair

Sparkman Center for Global Health Fellow 2020-2021

Patrick Scarborough

The Human Rights Campaign National Board of Directors

Amanda Keller

Director- Magic City Acceptance Center

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey

Alabama State Director -Human Rights Campaign

Shyla K. Fields

Program Manager of the Office of Identity, Inclusion, and Collective Conscience

Katherine L. Bland

Community Volunteer

Gina Mallisham

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Carlton V Bell II “CJ”

Artistic Director | | www.thebbrtc.com

Edward Jackson

LGBTQ Advocate & Health Care Professional

Caroline T. Bundy

Director of Development- AIDS Alabama, Inc.

Alexander Bautista

LGBTQ+ Latinx Specialist

Stacey Waites

Board of Directors -Central Alabama Pride

Allen Caine

LGBTQ+ Advisory Board Member

Oakley Nieters

LGBTQ+ Advisory Board Member

Justin McGuire

President, Central Alabama Pride, Inc.

Matthew Smith

Executive Director, AlaQuest Collaborative for Education

Patricia Todd

LGBTQ+ Advisory Board Member

Sydney Duncan

Attorney – Birmingham AIDS Outreach

Meme Armstrong

Owner- Iniquities

This press release was produced by the City of Birmingham. The views expressed are the author's own.