Hundreds Gather In West Hartford In Support Of LGBTQ Community

WEST HARTFORD, CT – Hundreds gathered Sunday in Blue Back Square to support members of the LGBTQ community and their rights as President-elect Donald Trump prepares for a second term in office. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Attorney General William Tong, state Sen. Derek Slap, and state Reps. Sarah Keitt and Jillian Gilchrest each addressed the crowd, along with a host of LGBTQ-rights activists from across the state.

Though the rally was a largely joyous affair, the specter of Trump’s potential anti-LGBTQ policies loomed as speakers urged the community and its allies to remain vigilant and politically engaged in the months ahead.

“Two things can be true at once,” said Barry Walters, co-chair of West Hartford Pride and member of the West Hartford Town Council. “It’s something we need to keep reminding ourselves: you can feel fear and hope and love. The same was true in the 80s, and it is true today. We must move forward, not allowing fear to replace that hope and love. We must harness our fear and that trauma, and collectively stand against whatever is thrown at us. You have power. You must find the will.”

The rally comes as Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election sets in for the majority of LGBTQ Americans who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re all experiencing some level of trauma, and some of us have been experiencing it for a while. Each of us is feeling differently and, accordingly, facing our fears differently. The message I want to make [clear] today is that we are here together,” said Walters, whose group is one of 14 organizations that organized Sunday’s rally. “You are here in a display of solidarity. You are here in an act of defiance. You are here in a grand display of strength. And whether you realize it, you are here to face our collective fear and challenge it.”

Blumenthal vowed to reintroduce the Equality Act, a bill that sought to amend the Civil Rights Act by prohibiting discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community in areas such as housing, federal funding, employment, and public spaces and services.   

“A lot of people are fearful. They’re sad, they’re angry, and we’re here to say to them, we see you, we support you, we love you, and we will stand with you,” Blumenthal said. “This rally is about more than Hartford. It’s about more than Connecticut. It’s bigger than the northeast of America. It’s about all of America and what we value and love.”

At stake are access to gender-affirming care and the hard-won civil rights and liberties of LGBTQIA+ Americans. For trans people, of whom 350 were murdered in 2024 in the US, and for Walters, who lives with HIV, a Trump presidency may prove to be an existential threat.

From rolling back protections against workplace discrimination for LGBTQ Americans in his first term to his campaign’s anti-trans messaging throughout the election cycle that just ended, Trump’s record on these issues leaves much to be desired among the LGBTQ community and their supporters.

“A lot of it is going to revolve around what funding comes through … from the federal government. They’ve already said that funding for the [Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] will be cut … They’ve made it very clear,” Walters said. “So the question becomes, what can Connecticut do? How can we protect our residents, our transgender folks, from the effect of that lack of funding? … Do we do it ourselves as a state? That’s very expensive and [will cost] money that we probably don’t have. Are we defiant? You know, I would like to see a little bit of defiance.”

Similarly, Equality CT Executive Director Matt Blinstrubas called upon the public to speak up, warning them of the dangers facing the LGBTQ community, even in the Nutmeg State.

 “It didn’t start two weeks ago. Over the last three years, we have seen hundreds of bills sweep across the country, stripping us of gender-affirming care, banning our stories from school libraries, defunding life-saving HIV prevention and treatment programs that we need to stay alive, and Connecticut is not immune to this phenomenon,” Blinstrubas told the crowd. “We have seen a toxic level of rhetoric in our state Capitol over the last two sessions. We must show up in record numbers. There cannot be a day next legislative session where our elected leaders do not see our faces and hear our voices in the Capitol … we will flood that building.”