Advocating at City Hall

As part of the Chamber’s advocacy focus, we work with key leaders at the City of Houston. Council Member Mario Castillo championed a new pilot position with a proposed budget amendment to approve an LGBTQ+ Economic Empowerment Coordinator.

One Wednesday, June 3, Chamber Board Chair, Stephen Miranda, delivered remarks in support of this amendment. Below are his remarks. The position was approved.

Thank you to Council Member Castillo for working to move Houston forward in terms of LGBTQ+ inclusion. We are grateful for his leadership on the Houston City Council.

Thank you to Stephen for his leadership and advocacy.

Stephen Miranda
Chamber Board Chair
Remarks at City Council
June 4, 2025

Good afternoon,

For those of you whom I have not met, my name is Stephen Miranda, and I am the Chair of the Board of the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. We are the 5th largest Chamber in the city, and the second largest Diverse Chamber, with 548 members and 67 corporate partners. Our Co-Founder, President & CEO, Tammi Wallace, regrets that she cannot be here today, as she is currently at a flag-raising ceremony for Pride Month. And Happy Pride, everybody! Hope to see you at our Pride in Business luncheon this Friday. 

I’m here on behalf of the Chamber to speak in support of Councilmember Castillo’s Budget Amendment Proposal to pilot a LGBTQ+ Economic Empowerment Coordinator for the City of Houston.

While there is incomplete research to define the full statistics of the Disparity Impact our community faces, which is something we aim to fix as a Chamber, hopefully, in conjunction with this coordinator, we see the challenges that our Chamber and community members face on a daily basis.

Specifically, from a small business lens, we continue to see our members left out of contracting and procurement opportunities – both private and government - that are strategically offered to other minority demographics. We see publicly funded loan programs created to provide low-cost capital to minority business owners in the region, that do not include our community. These programs are targeted and have funding to reach these constituents, and their results are tracked for future opportunities – we are not included in these efforts.

From a workforce development perspective, we know that the best way to protect and advance our community is via employment – because if you have a good job, you can afford basic needs like food, housing, and transportation – and you’ll likely have access to health insurance that will cover medical needs that are specific to LGBT people and families, whether that’s gender-affirming care, family planning, etc. so that no matter what happens to federal benefits or Medicaid, they will be covered. 

And as a community that faces higher poverty and unemployment rates, this is a way we can tangibly change those statistics in Houston, and what better partner than the City and OBO, which already has targeted minority programs like Accelerate Latinx.

There are a lot of great services being provided by the city, and having a liaison and an advocate to help our community get access to these opportunities, and to track the progress, will be transformative.

In 2023, the Clever Real Estate research team put out a study of the Most LGBTQ-Friendly Cities in the US, reviewing the 50 most populus metro-areas – and Houston ranked 49 out of 50. That’s not to suggest that our leadership here today is not LGBTQ-friendly, but it really highlights how much work we have to do to make this a better and more equitable place for LGBTQ+ people to work and live, and I think this is a terrific step in the right direction that will make a profound impact. Thank you.

See the remarks at https://houstontx.new.swagit.com/videos/344551 - mark 2:06:45.