Halaya, Age 15, Virginia
HALAYA: I’ve been ready to leave the country for a while now, but to get pushed out of the country it’s like… believe it or not, as soon as you want to kick people out who are trans – you’re kicking out creativity, you’re kicking out music, you’re kicking out style. Some countries aren’t much more safe, but there are safer countries. Countries where trans people will feel at home, feel ok to be openly trans.
DAD: I identify within the trans community, so it’s personal. I think about the future, and what the future will look like for all of my children. Looking at anti-trans laws, it’s just a continuation of oppression, no different than the foundational roots of the country. As somebody who is Black and trans you have to really think about oppression on many levels, and how things are interconnected.
MOM: It doesn’t feel like a country that’s been safe. It doesn’t feel like a shattering of my understanding of the United States, but it feels like a piling-on. I don’t even think that four or five years ago we had the same level of concern that we have now about what it’s going to look like in the next year, or the next two years, or the next five years and that it is unsettling. It upsets me, it angers me, that we have not gotten to a point where children and young adults can feel safe in their own skins and their own bodies, and feel loved. We have all of this legislation around Newport, Virginia where they were doing this transphobic ‘Protect the Children’ thing. There’s never been a day where I felt that my children were completely protected here, and I’m just wondering at what point do the children actually get protected?
HALAYA: I hope this will help educate the community I’m in – being in the Black community, there’s not a lot of education about trans rights, LGBTQ rights. Surround yourself by people who will willingly stand up for you and protect you. Just find your community where you feel safe, and leave behind the people who don’t make you feel safe. You can still try to love them, but if they’re saying a slur at you just distance yourself. Put up a border. Know that I’ll love you as soon as you come around, but if you’re not going to come around, stay over there.
MOM: Your child is worthy of being loved for who they are. Your child wants your love, and if you love your child you’ll be doing so much better than so many other people.
BROTHER: I think it’s really unnecessary. The speech Martin Luther King did where he said ‘I don’t want to be judged by the color of my skin’ – if it’s a characteristic of someone, and it doesn’t intentionally harm you, there’s no need to put up laws against them and ban them from certain things. It’s scary to me to think about the future that my sibling is going to be in. We both know, everybody in this room knows, that there are a certain group of people that are particularly racist and conservative who could bring guns to a Pride Day, and that’s scary to me. It’s not just scary for me, but more so for them. There’s a lot happening in this country that makes it not worth it to be here. We’re Black, we have multiple trans family members. It’s just a lot. It really is scary and dangerous for my sibling to be living in a country such as this.