transgender rights

Today marks the 2020 Transgender Day of Remembrance, and we're joined by transgender lawmakers and activists to discuss the state of trans rights. The ACLU reports that "in 2020, a record number of anti-trans bills are making their way through state legislatures."

Our guests discuss what has changed in recent years, and the role they think lawmakers and citizens have in helping to create a more equitable society. Our guests:

• Danica Roem, delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates, who was the first openly transgender state legislator to be seated in U.S. history
• Jess Whitehouse, activist, and community ASL interpreter
• Shauna O'Toole, former candidate for NYS Senate
  

When civil rights attorney Milo Primeaux read the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in favor of workplace protections for LGBTQ workers on Monday, he said he cried. 

Primeaux said this is a victory for the movement.

“This community has so historically and systematically been kicked down and oppressed by the government and by communities in so many myriad ways,” he said.

Primeaux’s practice focuses on LGBTQ legal matters. The ruling came days after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revoked health care and health insurance protections for LGBTQ people.