Teens Throw Prom for Transgender Youth

Joined by their families, dozens of youth from at least 17 states gathered in the nation’s capital Monday for a transgender prom.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) staff attorney Chase Strangio, who helped organize the event, told The Hill it was a “needed disruption” from the misinformation and negativity about transgender people in the news.

“This is about trans joy, trans creativity, trans brilliance and trans futures,” he said of the prom, held at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Strangio has spent the past few years battling anti-trans legislation in court and in state legislatures across the country as the ACLU’s deputy director for transgender justice, but he told The Hill that it was “immediately apparent to everyone in 2023” that “this year was going to be so much different, and so much worse.”

According to the ACLU, a record 490 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced this year in at least 45 states and 57 have become law.

Strangio told The Hill he was contacted by two transgender teenagers from Texas and Arizona who told him, “We’re done.”

“We’re done going and saying the same thing to legislators over and over and spending our childhoods just begging to be seen even in the most minimally human way,” he remembered them saying.

“They wanted to plan something bigger, plan something that was more centered in the youth experiences themselves and not as a counterpoint to what every sort of … legislature was planning,” he said.

Planning for the trans prom began in February, Strangio said, and donors and supporters included transgender actor Elliot Page, director and producer Lilly Wachowski and singers Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande.

Event co-organizer Daniel Trujillo, a trans 15-year-old from Arizona, told The Hill that the prom is a way to tell the Republicans who control both chambers of the state legislature that “I’m just a kid.”

“A lot of them have grandkids — I’m just like them,” he said. “I’m just a kid who likes to get his homework done, who likes to play the guitar, who likes to play with his friends.”

Trujillo added that he’s never felt unloved or unsupported by his family, friends or teachers.

“It’s only when I testify at the Capitol that I feel transphobia,” he told The Hill. “Senators say they want to protect children, but they’re actively working against me.”

One of 18 states that passed legislation limiting youth access to gender-transition care, Arizona is also one of 21 states with a law or policy in place banning transgender women and girls from competing against biological women.

Trujillo told The Hill that he hopes to inspire younger trans youth at Monday’s prom to push back against adults in power who might try to stop them from living as their most authentic selves.

“It’s going to be really important for them to have a visual model of their community,” he said. “They’re going to see trans joy live in this very real, very full and vibrant way.”