In this op-ed, Nicole Talbot, a 17-year-old girl in Massachusetts who is a spokesperson for the Yes on 3 campaign, explains why the ballot question that could reverse legal protections of transgender people in her state is dangerous.

I'm like most teenage girls. I love shopping at Sephora and hanging out with my friends. I just got my driver’s license. I'm focused on school and I have ambitious dreams of one day performing on Broadway.

I'm also transgender. For the past three years, I've been part of a major effort to uphold my basic protections from discrimination in my home state of Massachusetts.

When I was born, doctors thought I was male and so I was initially raised as a boy. But from a very young age, I knew I was a girl, and I communicated that in many ways, even before I had the words. My favorite Disney character was Mulan, a girl pretending to be a boy. And that’s how I felt. Everyday. That feeling never went away. It grew as I did. And after 12 years, I was finally able to articulate in words what I’d always known: I am a girl.

Everything about me was a girl, but the rest of the world saw me and treated me as a boy. At first, my mom let me dress as a girl only at home. I remember one year we got all dressed up in gowns to watch the Tony awards. But I wasn’t allowed, at first, to be myself outside the house. My mom thought she was protecting me from the world. But inside, I knew I had to be myself everywhere and all the time. In December 2015, I socially transitioned with the full support of my mom, legally changed my name and came out at school. From that day forward, at home and in the world, I was Nicole.

At about the same time, the Freedom Massachusetts campaign launched to update our state's law to protect transgender people from discrimination in public places — from restaurants and stores to government buildings and medical offices. These are the places we all go every day in our lives. In 2016, we successfully passed that law. I was really proud to meet with Massachusetts leaders, like our Governor Charlie Baker, to help them understand why protections for transgender people, like me, are so important. Watching this bill become law was one of the proudest moments of my life.

But a small group of opponents forced the issue to a ballot referendum. Now, Massachusetts will be the first state in the U.S. to determine whether to uphold transgender protections at the ballot box. It's the only fight on LGBTQ rights this election day. The question will ask voters to uphold or repeal the 2016 law passed by the Massachusetts legislature that ensures explicit protections against discrimination based on gender identity. A "yes" vote on ballot question 3 keeps the law in place. A "no" vote would repeal this law, erasing these protections under state law.

It's not easy to be public about my personal story, let alone be in the position of defending my basic livelihood and that of so many others. The "No on 3" side tries to reduce transgender rights to criminals in restrooms, airing scary, misleading ads that claim protecting people like me harms the safety of others. Not true. This law has been in place for two years and there has been no increase in incidents that opponents claim will happen. A crime is still a crime and harassment in restrooms remains illegal. In fact, police associations and women's organizations publicly support this law. It is making us all more safe, not less.