For those curious, here’s my #TDOV speech:

I have a message for the trans youth who are here today: you have a future. You have a future where you will be able to live, to love, and to thrive. Each and every one of you have a future where you will get to be your whole, beautiful self, and shine so brightly no one will be able to deny you.

Right about now, you might be rolling your eyes. Not only is that sappy as heck, but Joscelyn, look around and read the room: they are trying to make it so we cannot even survive until tomorrow, much less the future! They are declaring that they don’t deserve equal rights in schools and public life, that it should be a crime to even tell people your name or pronouns, and doing everything they can to stop our trans kids from having equal access to life-saving medical care. So how can I say you have a future?

The reason I know you have a future is because I am standing here right now. As an out and proud trans woman, *I* am the future that seemed impossible to me when I was your age. I am the future of a trans kid who grew up when it was a crime to be gay and trans.

I grew up in the midwest in the 1990s in a state where it was still a crime to be gay. This is blunt, but the only trans people who were visible to me at that time were punchlines and corpses. Hit movies played up the sexual assault of trans women for laughs or used the “shock” and “disgust” at our bodies as a dramatic twist. The only visibility in the news, when there was any, were our siblings who were murdered, such as Brandon Teena and Rita Hester. To dream of being an adult trans woman with a family - it felt like I would need to find a genie in a bottle or a magical potion because it was impossible to me.

But I’m here to declare that we, as trans people, do the impossible every single dang day. When the days ahead get hard, remind yourself: we will make the impossible happen, and we will do it together!

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#TransDayOfVisibility #TransRights #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransPower