It was January 20th in Washington DC and yet somehow I was surprised to see a woman standing in Union Station, wearing a pink t-shirt that read, "adorable deplorable." The inauguration of Donald Trump was about to begin just blocks away and the woman's husband tilted his red ball cap toward their daughter, perhaps to signal: "See, it is possible to 'Make America Great Again.'"
I spent last year documenting discrimination and injustice in America with the courageous, intelligent women at Broadly. The end of 2016 was a painful blur, as we struggled to continue covering the issues that affect women in America while feeling the personal tragedy of the election in our own lives. Still, we were able to continue our work together.
As the nuclear family stood before me in DC, I hoped they wouldn't notice me, or the fact that I'm transgender.
I left the train station to head to my hotel. On Massachusetts Avenue, walking in the cold, young girls hugged their coats, ears warmed by Trump beanies. The day before, from the VICE office in Brooklyn, I'd watched a live stream of a subcommittee hearing at the Virginia House of Representatives. State representatives were considering a bill that would bar trans people from using public restrooms, similar to North Carolina's infamous anti-trans "bathroom bill," HB2.
A mother had addressed the committee. "How would you feel," she asked the lawmakers, her voice shaking, apparently in fear, "if you saw a grown man following your nine-year-old daughter into a restroom?"
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