Meet Brittan: NPA’s Upstate Community Organizer

Happy New Year and Happy Black History Month!

I hope you all are ready to continue the fight for equity with us here at New Pride Agenda. We are kicking off the year in full force by listening and learning, empowering and mobilizing, and organizing to win! Our 2023 Community Advocacy Agenda just recently dropped, and it’s because of you– hundreds of mostly lower-income, working class BIPOC LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers who voted and made your voices heard – that our advocacy agenda is truly the community’s agenda. I’m proud to be part of a team that strives to listen to the communities they serve. We heard you, and now it’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and fight alongside you!

I’m so excited to be the newest member of the New Pride Agenda Family. My name is Brittan Hardgers, I use he/him pronouns, and I’m grateful to be your Upstate Community Organizer. As the first Black, out trans person to run for Rochester City Council, I am acutely aware of the importance of having a seat at the table. We all must work together to make sure the voices of our community are not just heard and uplifted but also factored into legislation, public dollars, accessible resources, and equitable services. I am ready to get to work uplifting to the voices of our communities from Buffalo, to Rochester, Syracuse and beyond. For too long, we’ve been left behind. Rochester alone is home to not one, but three of the poorest zip codes in the entire country. Upstate BIPOC queer communities have long been suffering from decades of lackluster investments and disproportionately inadequate resources and services compared to those available in New York City. Lifting every voice means leaving none of us behind, no matter where we live in New York State. I look forward to the continued work of making our visions of equity and the ability to thrive a reality, not just a DREAM.

For MLK Day, we started our advocacy and organizing efforts for the year “Uplifting Every Voice” with a town hall in Rochester, NY. We met community in the community. When I say we had a time, listen here… we had such an amazing day of fellowship, education, awareness and most importantly listening to the voices of our community outside of New York City. One of the primary goals of this gathering was to remind our Upstate and Western New York community-family that we are ONE community and that our lives, issues, and needs matter too. To us it’s been painfully clear but if was made even more evident throughout the day that we need true unity across the state so we’re no longer left behind. No matter where you live in New York State, please know your voice is crucial in the advancement towards equity for all LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers.

I am a true believer that we ALL are Black History. When I think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am reminded that this man had a vision, a dream: he was dedicated to the concept that all people are created equally as well as being steadfast in educating Black, Brown, and Indigenous people that our right to vote and make our voices heard should come merely on the fact that we exist here in America. When thinking of groundwork laid by MLK Jr. and so many others, I find myself stunned by history. Today we find ourselves reliving many moments of history’s past. Voting rights are on the chopping block. Reproductive freedoms and bodily autonomy are being stripped away. Queer and trans people are being pushed back into the closet – or driven out of their communities. Nevertheless, we live in the dream he had one night that has shaped our resilience to history repeating itself. MLK Jr. never got to see an actual ballot, never got the right to vote. His ability to see a different future of possibilities for our people has allowed me to not only see a ballot, but to have the ability to vote and to have my name on one. Ase’.

We, the people, are the living proof of all of the visions of our ancestors. So never forget, we may not be around to see the end results of our work, but generations to come will live on in the true definition of equity, justice, and liberation for all. Where we stand today is evidence that dreams and visions of an equitable society for all is POSSIBLE. This is the blueprint of our ancestors.

We must take care of ourselves and each other for it is our duty to do the work. I look forward to continuing the work with you collectively across our state.

Say it with me: NEW PRIDE!

Peace and love, Brittan Hardgers

Brittan Hardgers, NEW Pride Agenda