So, trans folks in NC, I’ll be honest, my first reaction to this anti-LGBT bill was to pack the car and leave the state. Today. Immediately. Because even though things have been rough here these last couple of years, there was still hope that sanely and respectfully demanding our rights would work. But instead of disbelief, fear, and hiding until things change for the better, or using the little cash I have left to drive to Mass or Cali or some other, brighter, more human place, I’m going to stay, for now, and fight back. And I want to ask all of you to do the same. We need to keep living life normally, demanding proper respect from prospective and current employers, using the appropriate restrooms when at restaurants or shopping or at work or anywhere else, and holding our heads up to stare down shame. We are not shameful. We are not without courage.

Stay and fight back. And let them threaten to arrest us. For being. For existing. For trying to live our own private and decent lives. Let handcuffs and disrespect and human rights violations be followed by a surge of civil rights lawsuits the number and likes of which this state has never seen. Because if we don’t fight back their hateful speech will amplify into even more violence against us. None of us deserve that. None of us deserve this. Fight back. I love you all.