Connecticut Lt. Gov. to trans community: 'We see you, we respect you, and we will keep fighting for you'

HARTFORD, Conn. — When Mia Lozado booked her first appointment for gender-affirming hormone therapy, she thought her grandmother would kick her out.

Lozado told her she was prepared to pack up her clothes and sleep in the park, but as the words fell from her mouth, Lozado said her grandmother looked at her and said, “You don’t have to do that. I’m here for you.”

“That day she saw me,” Lozado said.

With her mother smiling in the audience, Lozado shared her story with a crowd of elected officials, LGBTQ+ activists and community allies who gathered in Hartford Thursday to celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility and see the trans pride flag fly over the State Capitol for the second time in Connecticut’s history.

The flag made its barrier-breaking debut above the Capitol last year in a historic ceremony that affirmed Connecticut’s commitment to trans rights and underscored the resilience of the trans community in the face of legislative attacks and disproportionate violence across the country.

This year advocates carried on that message with an emphasis on empowering trans youth and celebrating trans joy.

“We are so proud of this beautiful, vibrant community,” Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said. “Some people think that flag raisings are not important, and I would respectfully and strongly disagree.”

“This is an important symbol for our state. It says that our state supports the trans community (and) supports our LGBTQ+ community at a time when so many of our rights and so many in our community are under attack in the state and in our country,” Bysiewicz added. “By raising this flag, the governor and I want everyone in our state to know: We see you, we respect you, and we will keep fighting for you.”

June Carpenter, a junior at CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School, said that she finds joy in knowing that LGBTQ+ advocates in Connecticut “are not done making this world better.”

Carpenter said that she’s lucky to learn in an affirming school climate, grow up in a loving and supportive home, and live in a state like Connecticut.

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