Since taking office, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have governed the exact same way they campaigned, which is with bigotry and with bluster, and that includes toward the LGBTQ community.
The first time I heard the word 'transgender' had been in a sitcom episode that mocked the potential for cisgender people to find people like me attractive. Every time someone expressed any interest in the gorgeous trans guest character - her identity still a secret to most of the main characters in the show - the laugh track would cue.
This is how systems of oppression work: The violence, discrimination, and stigma I face as a woman compounds the violence, discrimination, and stigma I face as a trans person, and vice versa.
My whiteness, economic privilege, able-bodied privilege, family support, and so many other factors shield me from some of the worst possible consequences - often fatal ones - that result from the toxic combination of misogyny, racism, and anti-trans sentiment.
Trans justice calls on us to combat the blend of prejudices that demean the lives and diminish the autonomy of another person.
We have to open hearts and change minds while at the same time pushing for laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
LGBTQ people are still targeted by hate that lives in both laws and in hearts.
Whenever you tell a group of people that they can't use bathrooms, or they can't access spaces that other people use, that is dehumanizing. It is discriminatory, and it reinforces the stigma and the prejudices that the transgender community already faces.
The reason why access to facilities - and access to public spaces - is so important is because it's much more difficult to go to work, to go to school, to participate in the public marketplace if you can't access bathrooms that make sense for you, that match who you are.
There's no question that the political is personal.
When the work you're doing every single day is so directly about who you are as an individual and who you are as a person, it can be both exhausting and empowering in different moments.
Being an American is an action; it's an ideal to strive for. It's being part of this constantly perfecting union that, with each generation, expands our scope and human understanding of 'We the people.'
For some, the fear of coming out is so great, they can continue to live an inauthentic life. But at a certain point, the pain becomes too much to bear. For me, having one more day pass by where I wasn't living my true self seemed like such a wasted opportunity, such a wasted life.
The Internet has been great for the LGBT community. I know many older transgender people who say, 'I didn't know there was a single person like me until I was 40.' I can't imagine growing up in my teenage years without access to that information.
Andy and I decided to get married in August of 2014, and just 4 days after we married, he passed away. For me, I carry my relationship with Andy with me in my LGBT advocacy work.
I think, for me, with regard to my parents, my biggest fear was not that they would reject me but that I would disappoint them. That by coming out, I would simultaneously dash my own dreams and their dreams for me, and I was afraid of letting them down.
When a person finally has the courage to say, 'This is who I am,' and society is not there to welcome them with open arms, it is so tragic.
I now know that my dreams and my identity are only mutually exclusive if I don't try.
I want to make sure that people understand that, behind this national conversation around transgender rights, there are real people who hurt when they're mocked, who hurt when they're discriminated against, and who just want to be treated with dignity and respect.
Discomfort isn't grounds for discrimination. We have a big country with a lot of different kinds of people in it.
It's OK to be talking to one another about what it means to be transgender. We don't have to shield everyone from the existence of people like me.
I'm so proud to stand with the LGBT Caucus and speak out in support of Hillary Clinton, because we know she stands with us.
Everyone's journey to coming out as transgender is different. For me, I've know that I'm transgender my entire life.
I think it's really difficult for folks that aren't transgender to really wrap their mind around the feeling of having a gender identity that differs from their sex assigned at birth. But for me, it felt like a constant feeling of homesickness.
Every single day matters when it comes to building a world where every person can live their life to the fullest.
I love politics, love government, and I definitely want to stay involved. But I don't know if I'd ever want to run for office.