The first thing I ever wrote for DigBoston, way back in 2012, was an editorial titled, “The Kids Are Not All Right.” I was angry, frustrated in my own closet, and had just attended a fundraiser for GLAAD. They were organizing an anti-bullying campaign and handling court cases for LGBTQ children.
It upset me how the youngest members of our queer parade were being subjected, even at school, to blatant cruelty. And now, two-and-a-half years later (and after countless “It Gets Better” PSAs), it seems society has yet to change enough. LGBT kids still make up a disproportionate percentage homeless youth. Trans teens still commit suicide at alarming rates, sometimes leaving behind blog posts for family members to find.
My heart aches for them all, not just because they’re young, but because they are vulnerable. In that way, we’re all children in this patchwork queer family. But some of us are in more danger than others. Barely a single week goes by without the tragic murder of a trans person of color, many of them black trans women. The list of names we read out in defiance and remembrance is getting longer.
We need progress, now. It might get better, but not on its own.
