This weekend I had the honor of speaking at the No Kings protest at Houston City Hall.

Speaking at a rally feels like cheating, because it's usually a sympathetic crowd. Not too many folks at a No Kings protest would argue that trans rights are important.

But transgender issues tend to get lost in the many, many delulu things that are happening today, so my call to action was to remember trans folks in the larger struggle for democracy. Here's what I came up with:

My name is Mandy Giles, my pronouns are she/her, and I’m here today because so many other parents of transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive kids can’t be here.

Donald Trump’s cruel executive orders targeting transgender people, Greg Abbott’s fixation on where people go to the bathroom, and Texas lawmakers’ obsession with restricting the rights of trans folks have created a culture of fear and confusion for families with transgender kids and the entire gender-expansive community.

It’s like our federal and state governments have nothing better to do than to pick on transgender folks, who make up less than 2% of our population.

The amount of negative energy and verbal vomit by the tyranny to harass and terrorize and erase the public existence of trans people is the very definition of state-sanctioned bullying.

Transgender folks are being demonized by the right AND by leaders who promised they would have our backs, but now – they’re being forced to use trans kids as pawns in political games OR they’re throwing transgender people under the bus for their own political gain.

So I ask of you - instead of turning your back on trans folks because they’re a tiny minority or you see them as a political liability, you need to pick them up and bring them with you in this larger struggle.

Because if you don’t, you will be next.

For YEARS now, transgender folks and the people who love them and advocate for them have gone to the Texas Capitol every other spring to argue for their right to BE WHO THEY ARE in the state of Texas. To simply, to peacefully just exist.

I want my transgender kids to live in a world where they can be their whole selves at work, where they can go to the fricking bathroom where they need to, where they have easy access to the medication they need, where they don’t have to fight for their rights and dignity every 2 years at the Texas Capitol.

And doesn’t everybody want those things? Don’t YOU want those things? Do you see how the fight for trans rights and equality affects us all?

Because trans rights ARE human rights.

Do not leave them behind. Do not throw them under the bus. We are them, and they are us.

I am thrilled to see so many people here today taking a stand AGAINST dictators and FOR democracy. But don’t let today be the end – what will you do tomorrow? How will you show up? Where will you donate? Where will you volunteer? Which leaders will you hold accountable? And do you have a voting plan?

Everyone here has power, and the power belongs to us. In a democracy, our power is expressed in unity and togetherness. So we need YOU. We need your voices. We need your power. We need your privilege to be loud, to be visible, and to take action for trans rights and equality.

We can ONLY do this - together.

Mandy Giles​
Founder, Parents of Trans Youth

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