I am Tyrell Brown. I proudly use they/them pronouns. I'm the Executive Director of GALAEI and Philly Pride 365. Philly Pride 365, this year we had an economic impact of nearly $6 million in about seven hours from our community, and that didn't include many of the items that we typically would account for such as lodging, transportation and so on and so forth. And it wasn't just about celebration. It wasn't just about that. This was about resource. GALAEI is a staff of nearly 7 individuals at max and often times we add other consultants to be up at 10 individuals at max to produce a festival that was estimated to be the largest public festival and resource fair in Philadelphia, outpacing Made In America. That is not to be forgotten in this moment, that it wasn't just about celebration, concerts and laughter and joy. Those things are important. But during that festival, we served about 30,000 people with resources and services, often for things that we are not funded for. On a daily basis at GALAEI, we do navigation for housing, often times for housing that is not affirming but also using our own mutual aid networks to source housing for people. As many units as we might build of $1,100 studio apartments in Kensington and Fair Hill and Southwest Philadelphia and so on and so forth, as many as we might build that housing, that housing is still unaffordable for most people that are (inaudible) to the margins in the city, particularly Black trans women, so we see that discrimination both implicitly and overtly. So it is incumbent upon these next couple years that we, I think to Diamond's point, not necessarily as challenging as it might be, it's incumbent that we don't be used as pawns, right, because we do know that what this administration is going to try to do is force everyone to trade out favors, right. You give up that affirmation for queer and trans folks in the city and we'll get you more funding for housing, right. But when we talk about a City of Brotherly Love, Sisterly Affection and Sibling Solidarity, when we talk about that, it means for everyone. And I know because I've worked with all three of you and other people in City Council that you all will be ready to stand and not trade us out for those things. And I hope that the efforts and work that we do and that we have put forward for the last three years, at least that I've been in this position, but for many years past that we will continue to work together to make sure that our city is an affirming place. And finally I will say this, whether or not we call this city a sanctuary city legislatively, it is because that is what we do organically. That is what Philadelphia always has been and always will be. It is up to us as institutions, it's up to us as elected officials and those that are allied with us to put that into law so that way people know that they can come here not just by hook, line, and sinker, and we can provide off of our backs but what we can provide institutionally for people that are coming here for resources and services. It already started. In 2024, GALAEI took on about to 9 clients that had come to 10 Philadelphia from Florida, from 11 Kentucky and from Texas already and 12 we had to navigate finding jobs, 13 housing, health care, so on and so 14 forth for them, and we don't get 15 compensated for that. That was not 16 money that was coming from the City 17 or any institution for us. That 18 was just off of the strength and 19 the will of our staff. 20 So we are going to need to invest in organizations and institutions going forward to provide those gap services and those wraparound services as we go forward for people that will see us as sanctuary regardless of whether or not it is written into law. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your testimony and thank you for your work and thank you for being here. We appreciate both of you for our last public comment. Is there anyone else here to provide public comment for today's public meeting? Please step to the witness table. (Witness approached Witness table.)
State your name for the record and proceed with your public comment. As a reminder, we're asking that we please try to keep it to a minute as we do need to give the stenographer a break before the 2 o'clock hearing.
Hello. Thank you. My name is Elizabeth Widen and I am a fourth-year medical student and Master's of Public Health candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout medical school I have been a volunteer at Puentes de Salud, a nonprofit community health center that serves a predominantly Spanish-speaking undocumented patient population. Today we've heard about the loss of sanctuary status in places like churches and schools, but we must also consider the erosion of sanctuary in hospitals. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, EMTALA, of 1986 ensures that hospitals with emergency departments must provide urgent care to all patients regardless of their ability to pay. Emergency rooms are therefore an extremely important access point to care for undocumented people who are almost entirely barred from having health insurance in this country and therefore don't have access to other sources of medical care. However, recent policy changes that remove protections against immigration enforcement in health care settings will certainly increase mortality and morbidity for undocumented people due to fear of deportation in medical settings. Thank you.
Thank you very much for being here and thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone here additionally to testify for this resolution today? (No response.)
Okay. Seeing none and there being no further questions from members of the Committee, would you like to have remarks? The Chair recognizes Councilmember Landau.
Thank you everybody for coming here today. This is my final moment of thanks in this moment, but this will carry this with you as we go and traverse the next four years. What we heard today not only shows that at least currently we have some pretty strong laws on the books that can help Philadelphians, all of us, immigrants, refugees, LGBTQ+ community, reproductive rights. We need to make sure that the City is enforcing all of these laws to the greatest extent that we possibly can. And also, what I felt today shockingly something positive in these bleak times, which is just this moment of solidarity, that we are all in this together, that if we stand up and stand together we will be able to be the most successful that we can possibly be in the next four years. So I look forward to working with all of you and it's not going to be an easy ride, but there's no way any individual can do it alone. It's got to be a community effort where we're all together. So thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Landau. And again, thank you for all of your hard work and to your team for their hard work on this resolution, and to all of you who have provided testimony and public comment today. And special kudos to Jared Namnun on my team. This is his very first hearing that he is clerking and I think he did an awesome job. (Applause.)
Thank you all so very much for being here. There being no further questions from members of the Committee, no other witnesses to testify and no further names for public comment, this concludes the business before the Committee on Law and Government today. Thank you all so very much for your attendance. (Committee on Law and Government concluded at 1:26 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL