Despite a massive rise in visibility—with roughly 44% of U.S. adults now knowing someone who is transgender—the community faces significant hurdles [8, 17]:
The youth circle began in the back room, a space decorated with pride flags, a rainbow dreamcatcher, and a corkboard covered in polaroids of past members. Tonight, there were six kids, ranging from a shy fourteen-year-old transfemme named Lily to a brash bisexual boy called AJ who kept cracking jokes to hide his fear.
Later, after the baklava had been devoured and the kids had scattered—Marcus offering Kai a couch in his basement, Fatima giving them a charger for their phone—Samira locked up the shop. She walked home through the cold November streets, past the brick walls tagged with transphobic graffiti that the city painted over every Tuesday only for new slurs to appear by Thursday.