A Message from Incoming Board Chair, Stephen M. Miranda

“Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.” – Willem Arondeus, an openly gay leader of the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement. These were his final words before being executed by the Gestapo in 1943.

This has been a difficult week. The normal routines of life that picked up Wednesday morning – work, meetings, pre-planned birthday parties, and dinners with clients and friends – have felt unnatural. The challenge of life moving forward, while feeling left behind by my country, my neighbors, my colleagues, and my family has, at times, felt insurmountable. In some ways, this feels like a painful deja-vu. In others, it feels new and uncertain - like we are wading into a dark ocean of unknown, with a storm brewing, hoping there is dry land in the distance. And the hardest part of this defeat is not accepting that America has changed for the worse but realizing that this is who has been around us all along.

Life is about to get a lot harder for a lot of us, and the people we love.

And yet, I feel determined. I feel invigorated – because we are built for times like these. And we have a playbook for challenging adversity.

In 1977, Dade County, Florida passed a non-discrimination ordinance that established protections on the basis of sexual orientation. This sparked a national backlash campaign, led by Anita Bryant, called Save Our Children, which led to the repeal of that ordinance and pushed lawmakers to enact policy prohibiting gay adoption. Their thesis was that the gay community would recruit children through sexual abuse to become homosexuals – and must be stopped! Doesn’t this sound familiar?

Her national hate campaign brought her to Houston on June 16th of that year, where she was met with more than 10,000 protesters, in a demonstration that galvanized our community and became our fulcrum for change. This was the largest protest of any kind in Houston’s history.

One year later, 3,500 Houstonians gathered for Town Meeting 1 in one of the first grassroots LGBT political events in the country, which led to the formation of the Montrose Clinic (now Legacy Community Health) and the Montrose Counseling Center (now The Montrose Center). In 1979, we held our first Pride Parade, and later that year Houston organizers worked with national peers to lead the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Through the headwinds of hate, we stood together and made generational change. And we will do it again.

This is a time when ordinary people become leaders in our movement. Harvey Milk sold cameras. Peter Staley was a banker. Marsha P. Johnson waited tables and performed in nightclubs. John Lawrence was a Navy veteran who worked as a Medical Technician. Ray Hill was an ex-con with a penchant for radio. Annise Parker worked for an oil company. But these ordinary people, alongside so many others, answered the call of their time and made an extraordinary difference. This is our charge today.

I want you to know that Kamala Harris was right – when we fight, we win. And this fight is far from over. We have a Legislative Session starting on January 14th, which is the true trenches of our battlefield in Texas. We need you there.

The call to “do something” rings louder now than before. And there is so much to be done. Our strongest shield is economic empowerment. This is where our Chamber has the power to BE the difference in the darkest of times. We comprise a powerful engine for change, with the unique ability to circle our wagons to protect our most vulnerable, and charge ahead with a singular message demanding equitable access to the American Dream.

We need to steel ourselves for a tumultuous four years, and one of the most fundamental ways we can protect one another is by ensuring that we have access to an income, housing, and healthcare.

Today I make this specific ask of all of you:

• If you are in a position to protect and promote someone in our community, you must do it.
• If you work for a corporation that provides private health insurance for transgender employees, I need you to help our transgender siblings get a job.
• If your company’s health plan includes travel costs for reproductive care, we want to build a pipeline of capable workers that need access to those benefits.
• If you own a company and are hiring, I need you to hire top talent from our community. I need you to expand your benefits, where you’re able, to fill in to gaps we anticipate federal programs will carve to exclude our community.
• And if you are out in the marketplace representing your brand, I need you to be OUT in the marketplace – showing the country that OUR community is integral to this economy, and that we are proud, resilient, and indispensable.

In 2015, Houston lost its fight for an Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). Undeterred, a group of business leaders came together the following year to create the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. Almost nine years later, we now have 500+ members and 62 corporate partners. We are the proof that progress is possible in times just like these. We are a body of remarkable people with changemaking potential. You are the reason we will succeed. You are ready for this moment. You give me hope.

I am proud to exist during this time in our history. Next year, I will begin my term as Chair of our Board of Directors, and I give you my unwavering commitment that I will rise to answer the call of this changing political climate. And together we will continue to push forward toward the equality we seek, and the freedom we deserve.

We are not cowards. We will fight. And we will win.

Stephen M. Miranda
Incoming Board Chair
Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce