LGBTQ youths plan to demonstrate in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on Friday in what they believe will be one of the largest youth-led protests in history.
The protests and classroom walkouts are part of a coordinated \u201cMarch for Queer and Trans Youth Autonomy\u201d on Transgender Day of Visibility, which is an annual awareness day dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of trans people while still acknowledging the violence and discrimination they continue to face.
The events, organized by Queer Youth Assemble, a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ people under 25, are a response to the wave of state legislation introduced by Republican lawmakers over the last three years that seeks to limit what sports teams transgender students can play on at school, restrict minors\u2019 access to transition-related care and prohibit the instruction of LGBTQ-related topics in schools.
The organizers of the events have one central message: Instead of talking about queer youths, talk to them.
\u201cWe\u2019re so used to being talked about all the time, but we\u2019re never included in those conversations,\u201d said Alia Cusolito, co-president of Queer Youth Assemble and one of the primary organizers of the march in Washington, D.C., which will start at 3 p.m. ET at Union Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cusolito, 17, uses gender-neutral pronouns and is a junior at Old Rochester Regional High School in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, on the state\u2019s southern coast. By leaving out LGBTQ youths\u2019 voices, they said, lawmakers are spreading false narratives that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are dangerous.
\u201cBut the real truth is that what we want is to be able to live safely and happily,\u201d they said. \u201cWe have no ulterior motives. We just want to be able to live and have everyone be supported and safe in the world.\u201d
So far this year, state lawmakers have filed more than 400 bills targeting LGBTQ people \u2014 with more than half of those targeting trans people \u2014 according to the American Civil Liberties Union and a separate group of researchers who are tracking the flow of legislation. In the last three years, 19 states have banned transgender students from playing school sports on the teams that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, and, in the last two years, 11 states have banned transition-related medical care for minors.
The \u201cMarch for Queer and Trans Youth Autonomy\u201d has a list of demands on its website. Among them, organizers want lawmakers to codify updates to Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in publicly funded education programs, so that it specifically protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The march also calls \u201cfor an end to all state sponsored misinformation on transitioning and gender-affirming healthcare,\u201d and organizers \u201cask for teachers, parents, and peers to maintain confidentiality in regards to others\u2019 gender, sexuality, and other aspects of our identities.\u201d An increasing number of states and school districts have considered and passed policies that would require school staff to notify parents if a student asks to use a different name or pronouns, for example \u2014 a requirement that advocates call \u201cforced outing.\u201d
LGBTQ youths have said the legislation has negatively affected their health and well-being. A January survey by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youths said recent debates around bills targeting transgender rights have negatively affected their mental health. Another Trevor Project survey, conducted in the fall, found that nearly 20% of trans and nonbinary youth attempted suicide in the past year.
Kristi Khan, who lives in western Kansas, near the Colorado border, will be joining a march in Wichita on Friday and will be thinking of her trans son, Kai, who died by suicide just over a year ago. Kai loved music, and he was an incredible artist, his mom said. He was studying phlebotomy at Barton Community College, and he was interested in becoming a nurse.
After his death, Khan started a TikTok account where she shared her and Kai\u2019s story.
\u201cI\u2019ve had so many transgender youth reach out to me and tell me, \u2018I wish I had a parent like you,\u2019 and, \u2018You\u2019ve given me hope. I\u2019ve been there. I felt like your son,\u2019\u201d Khan said. \u201cSo that\u2019s what my driving force is now. I don\u2019t want to see any other kids feel like that is their only solution and feel like nobody\u2019s there.\u201d
The Trevor Project found in 2019 that LGBTQ youth who had at least one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the previous year, and, in 2020, it found that LGBTQ youths who had at least one LGBTQ-affirming space had 35% reduced odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the prior year, with LGBTQ-affirming schools having the strongest association with reduced suicide attempts.
Esm\u00e9e Silverman, the other co-president of Queer Youth Assemble, who uses \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cshe\u201d pronouns, said they first became an advocate as a freshman in high school, after they contemplated suicide and were coming to terms with their gender identity.
\u201cI did not feel like I deserved a place in this world,\u201d said Silverman, now 21 and a sophomore at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where they are studying religion. All of that changed the second they walked into their school\u2019s gender-sexuality alliance, or GSA, a club for LGBTQ students, they said.
\u201cThey gave me my life back,\u201d Silverman said. \u201cIt showed me that I\u2019m not alone. It showed me that I will always have community; it showed me that I have a home.\u201d
That\u2019s part of what they hope the march provides for other queer youths: a sense of community and unity under the shared goals of safety, autonomy and joy.
Samira Burnside, 16, said she and her father would drive 13 hours from their home in Tampa, Florida, to Washington, D.C., on Friday so she could speak at the march. She said she wanted a chance to use her voice after watching the Florida Board of Medicine debate and ultimately pass a ban on gender-affirming care for minors who weren\u2019t already receiving it.
Burnside, who is transgender, said the day before the policy became effective earlier this month, the doctor she saw for hormone therapy pre-emptively decided to stop seeing her. She said she \u201chad to scramble\u201d to find another provider because she feared if she wasn\u2019t already under a doctor\u2019s care, then she wouldn\u2019t be eligible to continue hormone therapy under the rule. She ended up getting an appointment with a provider at 9 p.m., hours before the rule took effect at midnight.
Burnside has two messages that she plans to share at the march. First, she said, \u201cTrans people are people, and we are here, and we are willing to fight for our rights.\u201d
The second, she said, is for Democratic lawmakers: \u201cI want them to know that we won\u2019t keep supporting them unless they act like representatives and represent us, because we\u2019re under attack, and we need allies that actually do things for us.\u201d (According to the 2022 NBC News Exit Poll, Democrats won the support of 84% of self-identified LGBTQ voters, compared to just 14% who supported Republicans.)
Ultimately, Silverman said, the march\u2019s simplest goal is to start conversations.
\u201cWe want legislators to treat us fairly,\u201d they said. \u201cWe want to have conversations with people who do not agree with us. That is the way forward \u2014 to have conversations, to emphasize love and compassion, and to ultimately make these personal connections that will transcend any and all identity boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n