![]() Strangio, who the organizers jokingly referred to as their “trans-fairy godfather,” met Daniel and Libby’s parents while doing advocacy work in the south. “And so we talked to Chase, and it went from Chase saying, ‘Oh, they could do this,’ to this shift in the conversation where he said, ‘We can do this.’” We have to figure out how to help them do this,” Gonzales says. “Lizette (Daniel’s mom) and I were like, OK, our kids have an awesome idea. ![]() Strangio, who is a leading figure in legal battles for trans rights, helped organize the event. Most of the organizers’ parents knew each other from the Parents for Transgender Equality Council at the HRC, which Gonzales refers to as her “chosen family.” It is also through their advocacy work that the parents were able to connect with Chase Strangio, who is the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. Libby and Daniel’s involvement in civic action, though difficult, also connected them to a network of support that helped bring their vision of a safe space for queer youth to fruition. Instead, Libby has pivoted to planning an event that she sees as a chance to reclaim her agency. Libby’s mother, Rachel Gonzales, says her daughter was “forced into advocacy” because of her identity, and recently had to take a break from testifying against bills because of the mental and emotional toll it was taking. “Having to sit through testimonies for people who are saying that I’m mentally ill, it’s really hurtful and frustrating.” “My GPA dropped from going consistently, and it threw all of us into a really stressful space because my parents had to keep working drop what they were doing to drive to Phoenix,” Daniel tells TIME. Their lives continue to be disrupted by the fight to exist as they choose, they say. That sentiment proves true for both Daniel and Libby, who have been regularly involved in the world of advocacy, visiting their state’s capitals for the first time as young as six and nine years old to have speeches they wrote be read for testimony. In other states, individuals’ freedom of expression is also being stripped as seen through drag bans and a recently-decided legal suit where a federal judge ruled that a transgender Mississippi girl had to abide by her principal and superintendent’s mandate to dress like a boy at her graduation ceremony.Ī January poll by the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for queer youth, showed that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth said their mental health was negatively impacted by lawmakers’ debates around anti-trans bills in 2022. There’s also been the resurgence of bathroom bills, which bar transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity. At least three states-Oklahoma, Texas and South Carolina-have considered barring care for transgender people up to age 26. ![]() So far this year, some 20 states have passed laws banning gender-affirming care for people under the age of 18, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an organization dedicated to advocating for LGBTQ+ equality. ![]() “We wanted a way to be able to tell our stories ourselves and tell them the right way,” Libby says. The concept for the prom stemmed from the frustration co-organizers Daniel, who lives in Arizona, and Libby, who first met on a camping trip coordinated by their parents in 2019, were feeling about the more than 475 anti-LGBTQ legislative bills introduced across the country in 2023.
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