Orlando LGBTQ activists make care packages to encourage, support transgender community
People who identify as LGBTQ are working to support each other and gathering to put together care packages in Orlando.
They're doing this as several bills dealing with LGBTQ rights move through the Florida legislature.
"It's not a great feeling knowing that some people don't understand you," LGBTQ rights advocate Jessica Dawson said.
Dawson joined LGBTQ activists at the Mexican Consulate in Orange County on Wednesday to write letters and make care packages for members of the transgender community.
They're sending the packages to different organizations locally and nationally.
"It would've probably helped being younger, knowing that somebody actually cared about you. Another human being on the other side of the planet thinks about you," Dawson said.
Organizers say they're trying to host more events like that as LGBTQ-related bills move through the state legislature.
"The transgender community (is) feeling right now like a genocide by the governor and state of Florida," Andrea Montanez, a community organizer for Hope Community Center, said.
House Bill 1521 just made its way to the Florida Senate.
If passed, the bill would require people to use restrooms and changing facilities based on their assigned sex at birth, not their gender identity.
Violators could be guilty of a second-degree misdemeanor if they're in the restroom of the opposite sex.
State Rep. Rachel Plakon filed the bill.
In a post on Facebook, she said the bill endorses the idea that men and boys should go to the men's restroom or changing facility and that women and girls should go to the women's restroom or changing facility.
She continued to say, "When it comes to protecting all Floridians, including our women and girls, I will not back down."
Montanez traveled to Tallahassee to protest the bill.
"We feel under attack. A lot of people are feeling they want to leave the state because it's dangerous for us," Montanez said.
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