U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman has introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives honoring the work of groups that support the gay, lesbian and transgender community.
Watson Coleman outlined House Resolution (H.R.) 2 at the Princeton-based Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice on Jan. 29. It has the support of 25 members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Frank Pallone of the New Jersey delegation.
The resolution recognizes the efforts of organizations – such as the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice – that create safe spaces for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) community.
“(H.R. 2) encourages continued support by Congress for community organizations and individuals who continue to create community for marginalized groups,” said Watson Coleman, who is a Democrat.
Watson Coleman represents the 12th Congressional District, which includes Princeton, Rocky Hill Borough, Pennington Borough, Hopewell Borough and the townships of Hopewell, Montgomery, Cranbury and West Windsor.
Watson Coleman also announced the creation of the five-member LGBTQIA+ Advisory Board that will help her in the formation of policy.
The advisory board consists of Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber and Liz Begonis of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice; Stephen Chukumba of Garden State Equality; Alex Aikens, the director of programs at the Princeton-based HiTOPS; and Riley Keenan, program director at the Pride Center.
The Congresswoman deplored recent actions by President Donald Trump to end federal funding to hospitals and other medical facilities that provide gender-affirming care for minors that she said would be disruptive to the LGBTQIA+ community.
“It’s been a tough few weeks in our country, but knowing that I have fighters like Robt Seda-Schreiber in my corner gives me the strength to keep fighting,” she said. Seda-Schreiber is the chief activist of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice.
“That’s what we will need to do in the face of hate, and that’s what organizations celebrated in this resolution have been doing – fighting for justice, fairness and equality,” she said.
Watson Coleman reeled off a list of organizations that had formed since the 1980s and that have battled against homophobia – from the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Defamation League (GLAAD) to the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP).
“Today, as the clouds of hate are again forming across the country, it will be the successors to these organizations – HiTOPS, Garden State Equality, the Pride Center and the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice – who will provide shelter from the storm and stand up and fight back,” Watson Coleman said.
Watson Coleman said Seda-Schreiber visited her office in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago and spoke about the importance of recognizing groups that support the LGBTQIA+ community.
“That’s why I want to take a moment to present Robt and the Bayard Rustin Center with a proclamation recognizing his fierce advocacy of the LGBTQIA+ community,” she said.
The proclamation states that Seda-Schreiber, the “legendary founder and chief activist” of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, stands out as a “beacon of hope and light.” His work has changed thousands of lives across the community.
Seda-Schreiber’s passion for the arts led to the Creatures of Awareness Theatre Company, which raised money for AIDS support and HIV testing at the height of the AIDS crisis, the proclamation said.
He was also instrumental in creating the first Gay-Straight Alliance in a New Jersey middle school while he was a teacher at the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School in the East Windsor Regional School District.
Seda-Schreiber organized Princeton’s annual Pride Parade, the proclamation said. He also contributed to a book about Bayard Rustin, for whom the center is named. Rustin was queer and a civil rights pioneer who worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including organizing the March on Washington in 1963.
“(Seda-Schreiber’s) fierce devotion and passion have cemented him as a shining light at the forefront of the fight for intersectional social justice and queer advocacy,” the proclamation said.
Seda-Schreiber thanked Watson Coleman for the proclamation, which is the latest in a string of honors and recognitions that he has received.
“It is especially meaningful in these dark days as we look for the glimmers that can serve as radiant beacons illuminating a very fraught future indeed,” Seda-Schreiber said.
“The irony in my work as chief activist is that the real goal is to put myself out of a job – to create a community, a society and a world where queer safe spaces no longer need to exist,” he said.
It would be a world in which everyone – no matter how they identify or whom they love – can walk down the street and enter into any room without hesitation or concern and be proud of who they are, he said.
Seda-Schreiber emphasized that he does not work in a vacuum and the work is communal. He would not be where he is, if it had not been for the trailblazers who came before him.
“I am most inspired by those who are now just starting their journeys of justice in service to our community. Our past informs our present, which inspires our future,” he said.
“We must all do our parts in whatever way we can. Make no mistake, tomorrow we put our boots back on the ground to march in strength and solidarity in recognition of how far we have yet to go.”
