The State of Trans Address

This Pride month, at the peak of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, I think about the past of Trans people, compared to the present. How they were treated, and how we are treated now. They did not have the internet, and they did not have connections and organizations, they had to mold it themselves. They had to have to strength and the courage to say enough is e-fucking-nough.

And I am in no place to talk about my own discrimination because I barely get any. Some from family members, some from the glare of a middle-aged woman on the street, but besides the internet, publicly that’s about the extent of it. Because I am white, I am extremely privileged as a trans person and coming from a middle-class family, and privileged to live in a considered ‘progressive’ state that claims to welcome Trans people and treat them as human.

But I do know, that politically, our freedoms and rights as transgender folks are constantly under attack. Not only by the president of the United States but by the people who vote for us, by corporations that we depend on under capitalism, by bigoted organizations that have politicians and media on their side, and even by those in our own LGBTQ+ community. So, you can see why we are so angry, why we are constantly on the edge of our seats, and why the Trevor Project has seen the most traffic in the last few years than they ever have.

We feel somewhat helpless because if there’s one thing we know it’s that cisgender people love to drown out our voices and uplift the voices of those…