Mountain View’s first LGBTQ listening forum took place Saturday, Jan. 27 at the Mountain View Senior Center, offering an opportunity for local government officials to hear about the challenges facing the community.
The attendees listened to short speeches by Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, county Office of LGBTQ Affairs director Maribel Martinez, and Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith about current initiatives to address needs of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community in Mountain View.
Among them is the sheriff’s office’s implementation of a progressive LGBTQ policy for correctional facilities. Smith described the policy as providing “guidelines for properly housing LGBTQ inmates, as well as making informed decisions regarding access to programs, services, toiletries, preferred clothing items, and many other things within the facilities.”
The Mountain View Human Relations Commission distributed an LGBTQ Needs and Assets Assessment Survey designed to identify which services and policies support the community, as well as which key gaps in services must be addressed.
Attendees were then invited to break into groups to brainstorm and discuss specific needs of the community. Expressed frequently was a desire to address the needs of the most vulnerable members of the community, such as LGBTQ teenagers and the elderly.
Rebecca O’Bryan, a community member who teaches a self-defense class for LGBTQ teens in San Jose, said, “We all do this. You ignore homeless people, you walk past them because you don’t want to get asked for money and you don’t want to get hassled, so when you walk past them you do not make eye contact. Well, if you’re an LGBTQ teen, and you’re homeless and somebody is harassing you, nobody will help you because nobody will look at you.”
O’Bryan gives graduates of her class personal alarms that she hopes will aid victims in harassment situations.
Community members discussed a variety of options, including counseling for both families and students, awareness programs and even a center for the LGBTQ community in Mountain View.
“Any dialogue is important, any awareness is important, because it might reach that one person who can make a change,” a Santa Clara County social worker said at the forum.
Mountain View is the first of 10 stops on the Santa Clara County LGBTQ listening tour. Similar forums will be held throughout the county this year, with the final event planned in November. For more information about the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs is online at tinyurl.com/scc18LGBTQ.
Email Anna Krause at akrause@mv-voice.com
