WESLACO, Texas - Houston City Council Member, Mario Castillo, told the LGBTQ community in the Rio Grande Valley not to give up, despite the current hostile environment.
Castillo, who serves on the LGBTQ+ Caucus in Houston, gave the keynote speech at a luncheon hosted by the RGV Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The event was titled “Building A Thriving Village - Supporting a Healthy & Engaged Community.” It was held at Nana’s Taqueria in Weslaco.
“With sort of the onslaught of things that are happening now, it can be overwhelming and it could be demoralizing. The goal is to get people to give up, to just say, this is too much. I can't keep up anymore. I'm going to stop fighting,” Castillo said, in the Q&A part of the program.
“And when you do that, then they win, and it is a lot harder to come back after that, right? We can not let that happen. We just can not let that happen.”
Castillo continued: “You wake up and the headline of this or that is, the suicide line funding is cut, and trans people can not serve in the military, the HIV research dollars are gone. It is a drum beat, it is a drum beat, and it can be a lot. But we can not give up. We can not let that beat us down so much that we stop fighting back.”
Local action is needed just as much as state and federal action, Castillo said. He gave an example of an empowerment coordinator he and others were able to get appointed in Houston.
“You can do things here that help the community. That is where the economic empowerment coordinator came from. What can we do in Houston to help Houstonians, despite the state, despite the federal government,” Castillo said.
“So, take it back to local. Take it back to your community. Take it back to neighborhoods, organizations here, because those things are really important, and they make an impact. They make a difference, and it helps give people hope, so that to know this (Trump Administration) is not going to be forever.”
Castillo added: “We have to keep trying. We have to keep fighting, because if you don't and you give up, which is the goal, the goal that they want is for you to just be so demoralized, you stop caring, you stop fighting, it's a lot harder to come back from that, and we can't let that happen.”
Here is a video recording of Castillo's speech, including a Q&A with the audience:
