“A lot of people had really negative images toward the LGBT community, and I felt that had to change,” she says. Speece says some of the reaction in the community and even in the courtroom during the murderer’s trial was homophobic and resorted to “victim blaming.” Meanwhile, she says, the murders of three other gay men in Cameron County were greeted with the same anti-gay rhetoric. In 2009, her friend Barry Horn, director of the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, was murdered in his home. She founded Brownsville’s chapter of PFLAG on the heels of tragedy. Speece is a longtime LGBT-rights advocate. The City Commission passed the measure unanimously in December 2012, making Brownsville the first city in the Rio Grande Valley to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy. Sossi quickly drafted a policy that would make it illegal to fire city employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. That email and Speece’s presentation must have moved Sossi to action because “he took it and ran with it,” Speece says. In her presentation, Speece introduced the council to Brownsville’s chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), a national LGBT ally organization, and outlined the changes LGBT advocates wanted to see in the community.Īround the same time, Speece says, Brownsville City Attorney Mark Sossi received an email from a former intern that drew his attention to the city’s policy toward gays and lesbians-or lack thereof. Then-City Commissioner Melissa Zamora put Speece on the council’s agenda. She wanted the city to add sexual orientation and gender identity to its non-discrimination policy for city employees. In late 2012, Yolanda Speece-known affectionately to friends as “Yoli”-approached the Brownsville City Commission with a plea for equality.
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