I Didn't Say It ...

Serena Rice, ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, on the power of visibility for trans individuals:

“Have you ever attended an elementary school performance and noticed the kids who enter the stage, anxiously search the audience for their people, and then break out into a beaming grin as soon as they make eye contact? These adorable little humans haven't done anything beyond entering the stage. However, they still feel proud of themselves because the people they care about can see them. Then there is the biblical theme of being seen by God. It is not as frequent as the theme of being heard by God, but we can notice it especially with people who are used to being overlooked. Think of Mary's Magnificat … Mary, a young peasant girl at the bottom of her society's social ladder, exults that God ‘looked with favor on your servant.’ … [Being] seen was the catalyst for dramatic shifts in their life trajectories. Their lives were changed because God saw them. For me personally, as a Christian pastor and mother of a trans child, the question of being seen has particular weight. In many ways, it would be much easier and safer not to be seen. According to the loudest voices coming from American Christianity, my colleagues and siblings in Christ see my child's identity as an abomination. Being visible with my family's truth would be enough to get me fired by many congregations and even kicked out of some denominations. Thankfully, I've received tremendous support from my church. I am aware of the privilege of my experience. I understand why many people feel the need to hide. But I also know that hiding would be a violation of my integrity and my faith. My son chose a special line from one of our favorite authors, Alice Oseman, for his senior quote in the yearbook this year: ‘Never let anyone make you disappear.’ There have been times, including at the high school from which he will be graduating in a few months, when bigoted people have wanted to make him disappear. Daily, his courage to show up as his true self is among the most inspiring things I have ever witnessed. He has taught me the power of unapologetic visibility. Being seen, insisting on visibility, is not a matter of ego, ‘wokeness,’ or forcing one's identity on other people. It is a matter of basic human dignity. It is the instinctive understanding that being seen for who we are is essential to being valued for who we are. This year of all years, 2025, has witnessed an unprecedented number of bills and policy changes being pushed to try to remove human rights protections for trans people. It has also been a year when many who used to speak up for the trans community are walking away from advocacy for trans people. Whether they blame recent political losses on this advocacy or not, trans people are facing intense pressure to be invisible. As the mother of a trans youth, I know that I am hardly unbiased when it comes to the human dignity of trans people. Still, I do not think God is unbiased either, because every single trans person in the world is made in the image of God. They are made in God's image and their trans image is not a mistake. God made them trans on purpose. They beautifully teach the world about the beauty and power of breaking binary categories that try to hide God's diverse creativity. Trans people need to be visible for their dignity, but the rest of us need them to be visible so that we can see the face of God in them. We will never know the fullness of God if we hide them.”

Perfection. People just want to be seen as they are and why is that wrong? It's respect for others; it's kindness. It's not wrong.

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Chris Murphy, Connecticut Democrat Senator, during his opening remarks when Secretary Noem, AKA Border Barbie, testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security:

“I say this with seriousness and respect, but your department is out of control. You’re spending like you don’t have a budget … running out of money for this fiscal year … [and] illegally refusing to spend funds that have been authorized by this Congress and appropriated by this committee … You are on track to trigger the anti-deficiency act … This is a rare occurrence and it is wildly illegal … You may not think that Congress has allotted enough money to ICE, but the Constitution and the federal law does not allow you to spend more money than you have been given or to invent money. This obsession with spending at the border has left the country unprotected elsewhere. The security threats … are higher, not lower, since [The Felon] came to office … Your myopia about the border fueled by [The Felon]’s prejudice against people who speak a different language [has] shattered most of this country’s important defenses … You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand-new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required to follow as spelled out in your oath of office. You are routinely violating the rights of immigrants who may not be citizens, but whether you like it or not, they have constitutional and statutory rights when they reside in the United States. Your agency acts as if laws don’t matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate … When Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose the administration has no discretion whether or not to spend that money unless you go through a specific process with this committee … The first is a shelter and services program. Senator Britt may want to zero that account out, but that account is funded in a bipartisan way. You may not like the program. Your policy is to treat migrants badly. I think that’s abhorrent, but it doesn’t matter that you don’t like the program. You cannot cancel spending in this program, and you cannot use the funds, as you have, to fund other things, like ICE. You have also cancelled citizenship and integration grants, which help lawful permanent residents become citizens, helping them take the citizenship test. I know your goal is to try to make life as hard as possible for immigrants, but that goal is not broadly shared by the American public. That’s why Congress, in a bipartisan way, for decades has funded this program to help immigrants become citizens. Now let’s talk about why encounters at the southern border are down so much. This is clearly going to be your primary talking point today. You will tell us that it represents as success. But the prime reason why encounters are down is because you are brazenly violating the law every hour of every day … [by] refusing to allow people showing up at the southern border to apply for asylum. I acknowledge that you don’t believe that people should be allowed to apply for asylum, but the White House doesn’t get to choose that … [Our] asylum law is a bipartisan commitment, an effort to correct for our nation’s unconscionable decision to deny entry to Jews to this country who were being hunted and killed by the Nazis … [Let’s]  talk about these disappearances. In an autocratic society, people who the regime does not like or who are protesting the regime are often picked up off the street, and spirited away, often to open-ended detention. Sometimes they’re never seen again. What you are doing, both to individuals who have legal rights to stay here, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, or students who are just protesting [The Felon]’s policies, is immoral and … illegal. You have no right to deport a student visa holder with no due process simply because they have spoken in a way that offends the President … We as an appropriations committee worked interminable hours to write and pass this budget, and so we make ourselves irrelevant when we allow the administration to ignore what we have decided. And then when we look the other way when the administration rounds up immigrants who are here illegally and have committed no offenses worthy of detainment, we also do potential irreversible damage to the Constitution. These should not be partisan concerns—destroying the power of Congress, eroding individuals’ Constitutional rights. This should matter to both parties.”

This is what we need: more outrage, more speaking truth to power, more resistance.

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Liev Schreiber, actor, on his own trans child, Kai, embracing her identity, at gala hosted by the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and support for homeless LGBTQIA+ youth:

“Kai was always who Kai is but I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. [It] didn’t feel like that big of a deal because Kai had been feminine for so long. Kai is such a fighter. It’s important that she [says], ‘Hey, I am trans’ and ‘Look at me’ and ‘F–k you. F–k off.' [Now] I don’t know the answer for your kid. I don’t know what it’s like for you to be a trans dad. I don’t know how you were brought up. I don’t know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep. I guess if I would say anything to someone who’s having trouble with their trans teen or their adolescent trans kid, it’s, ‘Teenagers are a f–king headache. They’re hard. It doesn’t matter whether they’re trans or not because you’ll come out of this,' but a trans teen is going to be a teen. They’re such a pain in the ass so much of the time, and Kai is as feisty and outspoken as they come. I don’t like to dwell on it too much; to some degree, I feel like I don’t want to overcook that fear or that anxiety. There’s enough in the world to be anxious and afraid about. This isn’t just about representing the trans community. This is actually a community of people who don’t have great resources, who don’t have access to help, who aren’t being protected and looked after by their families. These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it.”

Trans kids, trans teens, are like any other kid, any other teen, any other person, just asking to be seen and respected.

Is that too much?

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