LGBT + Community Feedback
Public Comment
“ I live in a neighborhood where I would not reach down and take my partner ’ s hand when I was walking through the grocery store .”
“ It is more difficult for us , for me . Let ’ s say I go to work . I am Black , gay and a woman . So first I have to burst through the glass of being a woman , then burst through the glass of being gay , and also burst through the glass being Black . That is a lot to go through as a person .”
“ My sexual orientation doesn ’ t really come up in my day-to-day life unless I bring it up . I will say I lived briefly in Waxahachie , Texas , and I do feel a lot more comfortable here just bringing it up at work or in conversations with people in general than I did in that environment . So , for me , it has been kind of a positive change from coming from a smaller town to Arlington . But , I will also add , it would be nice to have more of an LGBT friendly environment . We know some places in the Dallas area , but that ’ s a little far from us as well . So just having more of that in Arlington , I think would be extremely welcomed .”
“ The biggest challenge that we have is perception : there ’ s a perception that the City is not welcoming to the LGBT community . And , there ’ s a perception by the non-LGBT community that the LGBT community isn ’ t in Arlington . We need to work on those two things . And , having protections in place for residents is part of the demonstration for Arlington being a welcoming community is adding sexual orientation or gender identity to the list of protected classes . We are one of the largest cities in the nation that doesn ’ t have that .”
Unity Council Report 90