Watson Coleman Statement on the Passing of Babs Siperstein
EWING, NJ (February 4, 2019) — Today, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) issued the following statement on the passing of LGBTQ advocate Barbara “Babs” Siperstein:
“In life you encounter a few people who are hosts unto themselves, capable of the unique capacity to create change. You encounter even fewer willing to use that capacity to touch the lives of others. Babs was both. She was a legend in New Jersey and in the national fight for transgender rights, and a fierce champion and advocate for the LGBTQ community, proudly serving as the first openly transgender member of the Democratic National Committee and shifting expectations and stereotypes along the way.
“Babs’s efforts spanned two decades spent tirelessly fighting to free transgender people from both stigma and the legal hurdles that kept them from living their fullest lives — a fight memorialized in the passage of the Babs Siperstein law now in effect in New Jersey. We have lost a tremendous leader who touched countless lives. I offer my deepest condolences and prayers of comfort to her family and friends at this difficult time.”
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