Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm visited the Rainbow Room in Doylestown Thursday to celebrate Pride month and to make sure local LGBTQIA+ youth know that they are supported at a time when there has been increased attacks on their community.
Palm participated in a roundtable event with many LGBTQIA+ individuals from the community who shared their experiences of being Queer and expressed how they thought the HHS could help them in the future.
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“At HHS, our mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Americans,” said Palm. “It’s Pride Month, and we thought it was really important to say out loud in communities that that includes LGBTQIA+ individuals and community members, and particularly our kids who really, in these moments, need to hear that we are supportive of them and of their health and well being, and we want to do everything we can to to help them thrive and be successful.”
In Bucks County and across the nation, LGBTQ+ students, books, and events have been targeted by hostile right-wing groups and lawmakers. In May of last year, two books – “Gender Queer” and “This Book is Gay” – were both banned in Central Bucks School district after the former right-wing majority school board rewrote library policies and regulations, with the help of the conservative Christian Independence Law Center, to make it easier for parents to challenge and ban books. And in just the past week, a Pride flag that was being flown at Monument Square in Doylestown was stolen, which is the seventh reported time of Pride flags being vandalized in the borough in the last year
Two community members who participated in the roundtable event, Jamie Ludwig and Drew Levy, were thankful to be able to speak to Palm and the HHS.
“I had a really good experience at the event,” said Levy. “It’s very rare that we actually get to be heard by our government officials, and so feeling like I have a say in how things go is very empowering.”
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“I had mentioned this to the Deputy Secretary (Palm), that being Queer is inherently a very lonely thing where you often don’t feel like people understand you and it’s a very dark and difficult path,” added Ludwig. “Especially in environments as tumultuous as this one. So, I think anything that helps you find a community is inherently good and helpful, so I’m very appreciative for all that Doylestown is doing to reach out.”
Earlier in the day also Palm also visited the AIDS Care Group in Chester, PA, where she got a tour of the facility and also participated in a roundtable event where she talked to providers about new doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (Doxy-PEP) guidelines for STI prevention and ongoing HIV and syphilis prevention efforts, according to a press release put out by the HHS.
Both events dealt with heavy topics, something that Palm did not shy away from.
“For me, that’s why it’s so important to get out of the office and come out to communities because it’s easy to sort of keep it at arm’s length,” she said. “And it’s really in hearing the experiences of kids and youth and young adults that renews your commitment to the work that you’re doing. Whether it’s LGBTQIA+ issues or other issues when I’m out at communities, they are the stories that help you remember why it is we get up every day to do the work that we do. And so I’m very grateful to be able to come out here and hear these stories.”
