Teens organize transgender youth prom to fight against anti-trans legislation

Dozens of transgender children, teens and their families from more than 17 states gathered in Washington on Monday to celebrate their identities at a prom organized specifically for trans youth.

Chase Strangio, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and one of the prom’s organizers, described the event as a “needed disruption” from the negative and misinformative stories about transgender people that tend to dominate the daily news cycle.

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

As the ACLU’s deputy director for transgender justice, Strangio has spent the last several years fighting anti-trans legislation in court and in state legislatures nationwide.

“What was immediately apparent to everyone in 2023 was that this year was going to be so much different and so much worse,” he told The Hill in a recent interview. A record-shattering 490 bills targeting LGBTQ rights have been introduced this year in at least 45 states, according to the ACLU, and 57 have become law.

Early this year, Strangio was contacted by two transgender teenagers in Texas and Arizona, where, by the ACLU’s count, state legislators this session have introduced a combined 64 anti-LGBTQ bills.

“We’re done,” Strangio recalls them saying. “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.”

“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.

In February, Strangio and a team of organizers met to plan what would eventually become the trans youth prom. The event is intended to “center joy and celebration and the stories we want to tell, not the ones the other side wants us to be engaged in,” Strangio said.

Donors and supporters include actor Elliot Page, director and producer Lilly Wachowski and musicians Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande.

For Daniel Trujillo, a trans 15-year-old from Arizona and one of the event’s co-organizers, the prom isn’t just a way to express himself, it’s a way to express to lawmakers back home, where Republicans 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.”

Growing up, Daniel never questioned whether he felt loved, supported or affirmed by his family at home or by his teachers and friends at school.

“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.”

Arizona is one of 18 states that has passed legislation to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youths, and one of 21 that has adopted a law or policy preventing transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams.

The state legislature has also sought to bar transgender students from using school restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. At least 10 other states have enacted similar legislation.

Daniel hopes he can inspire other, younger trans youth at Monday’s prom to live as their most authentic selves, even as adults in power try to stop them.

“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.”

The prom is somewhat of a full-circle moment for Daniel, who first came to terms with his own identity after he and his parents joined a support group for families with transgender children and young adults.

“It was kind of like the first way I saw myself reflected back in the world,” he said of the support group, which is now run by his parents. “For me, I know that seeing older trans people was really important because for a while we thought we were the only ones. Now, I’m the older kid.”