As a wave of anti-trans legislation continues to harm youth across the U.S., trans journalist Ina Fried was inspired to create a social media campaign to send messages of love and support to trans kids. Actors, athletes, politicians and people around the world are sharing their affirming words using the hashtag #letters4transkids.
“What the campaign has shown is that there are a lot of people from a wide range of backgrounds who want to see each kid become who they are,” Fried tells Xtra. “And for me, that’s really the message. It’s about letting every kid know, ‘Hey, I want you to become the best person you can be—the best version of yourself.’”
Fried got the idea after her cousin Linda asked what she could do to support trans kids after last year’s wave of anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills. “What if I sent a letter?” she asked.
Fried kept returning to her cousin’s question months later as state after state continued to push bills targeting trans youth’s access to healthcare, participation on sports teams and more. As a journalist, Fried felt she couldn’t “get into the politics,” but still wanted to do something to counteract the mental and emotional toll of the bills.
The impact of anti-trans legislation is twofold, Fried feels. “One is the actual letter of the law,” she says. “But the other is the message it sends to trans kids—that they’re not worthy of inclusion, that they don’t matter, that they’re not fully who they are. And that was the piece that I was hoping to be able to take on: that second impact—which really affects trans kids and trans adults everywhere.”
Fried kicked off the campaign on April 10, inviting people to record a video, write some words or take a photo of a handwritten letter and to post it to any social media platform using #letters4transkids. People can also email their letters to lettersfortranskids@gmail.com, and Fried will share their message on her social media.
In her letter, Fried acknowledges how hard it can be to “figure out who you are inside.”
“I just want to let you know that however many angry voices are out there, there are also lots of us cheering you on,” Fried’s letter reads. “I want you to be fully you, whoever that turns out to be. And it’s okay if it takes time to figure it out. That’s part of what being a kid is supposed to be all about—figuring out who you are.”
The response has been “overwhelming,” Fried says. A broad range of people have contributed to the campaign, including actor Vico Ortiz, professional hockey player Kurtis Gabriel, actor Javier Muñoz, and Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was killed in a high-profile, brutal hate crime in 1998.
“This is a woman who has inspired so many, who’s come to be the face of love in the face of hate and loss,” Fried says about Judy Shepard. “And to have her join the effort says a lot to me. It really means a lot to me.”
One of Fried’s favourite videos under the hashtag came from someone named Christopher Phin in Scotland.
“I want you to luxuriate in shining with your true colours, to find joy, fulfillment and peace in whatever truth you choose—you chose—to live,” Phin says in the video. “I want you, dear trans kid, to grow up to be a trans adult.”
Credit: Courtesy of Ina Fried
Fried, who has been out for more than 20 years, says it’s “a tough time to be a trans person in America,” and that it’s exhausting to have “your very humanity up for debate.” This year, Republican politicians have made an effort to ban trans students from playing school sports and to criminalize gender-affirming healthcare. Two weeks ago, Alabama passed a law making gender-affirming care a felony, and another that bans discussions of gender and sexuality with students in grades K-5, mirroring Florida’s recent “Don’t Say Gay” bill. All have been signed into law.
Fried says she’s inspired by the broad show of support for #letters4transkids.
“It’s incredibly heartening,” she says. “I think it is a reminder that the voices that we hear the loudest aren’t necessarily representative of the majority.”
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