Eight Years Ago, Things Looked Bright for Trans People; Not So Much Today.

 

In January 2017, Avery Jackson appeared on the cover of National Geographic. Just nine years old, they declared to the world, “The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy.”

For a moment, it felt like the future might finally open with hope for trans kids everywhere. Avery’s face shone as a symbol of possibility, and their family stood courageously behind them.

But the cost of that courage was devastating. The Jacksons were forced to uproot their lives and move to Europe for safety. Imagine that — fleeing your own country, not because of war or famine, but because hatred made it impossible for your child to grow up free. Eight years later, Avery should be stepping confidently into young adulthood. Instead, they and their family carry the scars of exile, living proof of how fragile safety is for trans people.

And yet, what followed in the U.S. was not greater protection, but greater hostility. State after state introduced anti-trans bills, stripping away rights and dignity. And now, even marriage equality — the supposed crowning victory of the LGBTQ movement — is under threat before the Supreme Court.

Here’s the painful truth: too many cis LGB people stopped fighting after Obergefell. Marriage equality was treated like the finish line, and trans people were left behind. When lawmakers came for us, when healthcare was taken from kids, when families like the Jacksons were driven from their homes, silence reigned. That silence was unacceptable then, and it is unacceptable now. It told the world that some lives were expendable. It emboldened those who always intended to come for more.

I write this from Canada, where I live with relative safety. But let’s not fool ourselves. The same forces undermining LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S. are active here too. Egale’s fight for trans rights in Saskatchewan makes it clear that the struggle is already on our doorstep.

Solidarity cannot be selective. If we don’t stand together — trans, gay, lesbian, bi, disabled, immigrant, Black, brown, poor — then the playbook of erasure will keep rolling out, group by group. Silence in the face of hostility is complicity, and it costs lives.

The question now is whether those who once thought themselves safe will finally rejoin the fight — not just for themselves, but for all of us.

#transrights #transinclusion #lgbtqia