It's Giving Testimony
As you may have read in the Philadelphia Gay News, I gave testimony at a Philadelphia City Council meeting to speak up about the importance of protecting gender-affirming care. I made a comic about it; you can read it on my Patreon.
Giving testimony is a strange endeavor; it’s important to alert lawmakers to your concerns, but it feels meaningless. How can I express everything I’m worried about in less than two minutes? The architecture of government buildings, designed for pomp and grandeur, can make you feel very small when you’re inside them. It can make what you have to say feel unimportant. It can make you feel unimportant.
You have to remember that you are important, that what you have to say is worth saying, and that you can and will say it with your whole chest. And to treat that time limit seriously.
If nothing else, coming to the City Council meeting reassured me about the immediate future. Things are not heading in a good direction, and I do not trust all of my elected officials. But hearing the testimony of others, especially those representing larger organizations in the city who have plans with how to deal with the recent attacks on immigration and LGBTQIA+ rights. I’m not alone in my concerns, and that knowledge was worth the trip all by itself.
I think in the coming years, it would behoove us all to get more involved in local government. And small ways like giving testimony at open sessions is great way to start.
Here’s the comic for this week. BRICKS was something I've been tossing around for awhile now: What if DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR but also Hergé and about trans people? I'm not sure if all jives, but I think there's enough there that its worth developing further.
