“Trans Equality Now” Gala Celebrates 20 Years of NCTE
“It is understandable to look at the state of transgender rights today and feel dismayed — I get that,” says Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “But there are really incredible leaders who are fighting back.
And not only that, but they’re motivating and getting other people involved. So I want us to remember the power we do have and draw inspiration and motivation from that.”Heng-Lehtinen acknowledges the deluge of anti-transgender legislation and policies being pushed at the state and federal levels.This year, more than 500 bills targeting or seeking to restrict transgender rights have been introduced in nearly every single state — a situation that prompted the nation’s top LGBTQ civil rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, to declare, for the first time in its history, a “state of emergency” for transgender and nonbinary Americans.“It is astounding to be that under attack,” says Heng-Lehtinen. “But what our opponents did not count on is that transgender people, and our families, and other people who love us, are turning out to state legislative hearings and packing the rooms, giving testimony and trying to show these state legislators that transgender people are not the boogeyman under the bed.“We are your friends, families, and neighbors, and there are people who back us up and care about us.
And if you go after us, we’re going to get mobilized and show up and turn out. So I do think this wave of anti-trans legislation is waking up a sleeping giant of people who are on the right side of history here.
And it’s motivating people to get involved. People who never thought of themselves as activists are now becoming activists because of this.”This year’s “Trans Equality Now” Awards Gala, on Friday, October 27, serves as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of NCTE’s founding in 2003.The event, which kicks off at an undisclosed location in Washington, D.C.
