Texas Veterans for Equality Protects Trans People at San Antonio Event

Veterans for Equality, an LGBTQ-supportive group, turned out for Trans Day of Visibility in San Antonio, Texas this year. The group’s founder, Gen Peña, told local CBS affiliate KENS5 how they worked to protect trans members during the “March for Us” event, the first that the city had ever held. “We try to stay in the middle and de-escalate any types of situations,” Peña explains.

All over the country, violent, bigoted protesters have showed up to drag events to harass and intimidate attendees. Last month, neo-fascist group the Proud Boys protested a Drag Story Hour event in New York City. According to NBC News, the protest turned into a violent skirmish between the Proud Boys and counter-protesters. According to the Texas Tribune, there was a similar scene in Dallas, Texas back in January when protesters accused a restaurant of child grooming because a drag brunch held there didn’t explicitly forbid minors. It’s notable that trans people and drag performers are not the same thing, but the simple fact that a Trans Day of Visibility needed protection from protesters goes to show that this distinction is lost on the protesters.

“Because of everything that’s going on with all the threats—the hate, the bigotry—we’ve had to adjust fire and really focus on the LGBT community,” Peña tells the CBS affiliate. “What happened at Club Q, Pulse, those types (of) situations… unfortunately, there were horrible, horrible, horrible tragedies that happened. And because of that, our community is very scared. They’re very on edge and very anxious with everything that’s going on.”

Veterans for Equality told KENS5 that they were also working on self-defense courses for LGBTQ people and allies. This will include firearms training. “Nobody wants to go out and carry,” Peña explains. “Nobody wants to go out and learn basic firearms for the safety of themselves. We want to just be able to be free, be who we are, without having to worry.”

According to a piece in Texas Monthly, transgender people in Texas arming themselves isn’t unheard of. The magazine profiled a number of transgender people who chose to arm themselves amid the rising anti-trans legislation in Texas. This included an army veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan named Josephine who compared her situation to deployment. “I never thought I would feel like I was on deployment when I was back home in Texas,” Josephine says. “We just want to live our lives in peace and be left alone, but conservatives are mistaken if they think the trans community is not going to fight back when we’re attacked. We’re sick of being targets.”