“Hi! My name’s Naim and I am almost 12. I enjoy musical theater, acting in musicals, and I love cosplay, too.”
So began one of the featured speakers at Sunday’s Rise Up for Trans Youth Rally, an event that drew thousands of people to New York City’s Union Square. Naim continued: “Today I am here, even though this is challenging, because I want other people to know that they cannot tell us trans kids who we should be. We deserve to figure that out ourselves … without other people trying to control us. We are humans. We are entitled to as many human rights as anyone else.”
Amid the second Trump administration’s attacks on the trans community—and on gender-affirming care for youths in particular—reports have emerged of hospitals across the country, including New York’s NYU Langone and Mount Sinai, canceling gender-affirming care appointments for trans youth, even as New York State Attorney General Letitia James has reminded medical providers that denying people healthcare is against state law.
Still, the many families who joined the demonstration this weekend, co-organized by Trans formative Schools, Gender Liberation Movement, and ACT UP NY, were eager to stand up to the challenges posed by this reactionary political moment. While elected officials were welcomed to attend the rally, they were not invited to speak, keeping its focus trained squarely where it belonged: on trans youth, their families, their rights, and their hopes for the future.
Here, images from the scene at Sunday’s Rise Up for Trans Youth Rally.
