More details emerge about 'Trans People Deserve to Live' banner hung during World Series
By: Johnny Flores, Jr.
LOS ANGELES — A banner with the words “Trans People Deserve to Live” was unfurled from the top deck of Dodger Stadium during the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 2018 World Series. It hung over the club suites before quickly being taken down by police, witnesses told Yahoo Sports.
The demonstration was started by the TransLatina Coalition. The Los Angeles-based group is made up of transgender Latina leaders who “come together from all across the country.” Its mission statement reads in part, “to advocate for the specific needs of the trans-Latina community that resides in the U.S.A. and to plan strategies that improve our quality of life.”
The group broadcast on Facebook Live during the fifth inning of the game. The attendees of the event included president Bamby Salcedo. The video begins with the group seated near the top of the top deck. During the half-inning when fans in the very front row left their seats, they took over and draped their banner. The banner was draped until the security detail in the club suites below removed it.
As the video ends, the fans were escorted out by Dodger Stadium security without issue.
During the game, Yahoo Sports spoke to several fans in the club suites of Dodger Stadium, who said the matter was resolved quickly.
“A cop took [the banner],” one fan said.
Members of guest services and the security detail at Dodger Stadium confirmed the fan’s account of the banner being removed. They noted that members of the LAPD promptly took it and walked out the exit of the club suites. The exit leads to street level at Dodger Stadium. Officials provided no further comment.
The TransLatina Coalition issued a statement on the Monday following the Red Sox victory confirming their involvement: “We have been marginalized in all aspects of society for far too long and it has caused our people to experience severe hardship in our lives, as well as lose our lives without justice.”
Their demonstration was in response to the Trump administration’s plans to narrowly define gender.
“During a week of bad news and transphobia perpetuated by the Trump administration,” the group said. “We felt that it was extremely important now more than ever to be visible to the world.”
Currently, an estimated 1.4 million adults in the United States have opted to recognize themselves as a gender other than the one they were born into. A report from the New York Times states that Department of Health and Human Services intends to define gender as “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.”
This would result in the establishment of a legal definition of sex under Title IX. Title IX is the federal law that, “protects individuals from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance.”
A memo obtained by the Times says, “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth. The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”
Yahoo! Sports reached out to the TransLatina Coalition and to its president multiple times, but did not receive any returned messages.
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