BILLINGS — Alongside religious observation of the Easter holiday, members of the LGBTQ community gathered outside of the Yellowstone County Courthouse on Sunday in observation of both the annual Transgender Day of Visibility and Easter Sunday.
“I’m (a) very, very devout Catholic. I believe in the love of Christ," said Ming Cabrera, who was invited as a guest political speaker. "We have to understand that people are people and we have to love them no matter who they are."
Many expressed, however, that religious groups and the LGBTQ community are more often seen as adversarial.
“Growing up it was taught that Christianity and Jesus was all about love, but what I saw more, personally, was a lot of the opposite of that: hate and unacceptance," said Shirley Marin, an attending LGBTQ ally.
Sunday's dual observation was entirely circumstantial.
“Trans Day of Visibility doesn’t change regardless of the year. It always happens on the same day, March 31st. It’s an international day of visibility, joy, and awareness," said Bailey Desper, an event organizer and member of the transgender community.
Despite the more commonplace contention between the two backgrounds of religion and gender/sexual identities, many in attendance emphasized that the two celebrations and backgrounds are not implicitly mutually exclusive.
"There are a lot of Christians out there, a lot of religious people, that are fully supportive of the LGBTQ community, that would be glad to say, ‘Happy transgender visibility day,'" said Anne Ross, who was invited as a guest political speaker.
