Piper, a 17-year-old transgender girl, says she knows she is fortunate. She lives just outside Atlanta, with a supportive family and two rescued leopard geckos, Saturn and Juno.
Queer Med, a private gender clinic, is a short drive away; two years ago, she started a regimen of gender-affirming hormones there, after five months of asking — a comparatively short wait.
The treatments have precipitated a monumental shift in Piper’s perception of herself. “I’m just more confident in my body,” she said. (Piper’s family members asked that she be identified by only her first name to protect their privacy.) Things are not perfect.