Trans Futures Manifesto: How to Include Trans Voices in Mainstream Narratives
I saw this opportunity to offer my 19-year-old voice to the trans movement, speaking to the real material needs of trans people that go beyond symbolic gestures.
(Courtesy of X Vazquez)
California — X Vazquez’s Trans Futures Manifesto elaborates on the phrase “Protect Trans Lives,” diving into the key areas of support and systemic change needed to ensure and bolster the survival of trans people in the state of California and beyond.
Guided by YR Media and California 100’s “How to Build a Manifesto for the Future: A Dreamers & Doers Toolkit for Young Futurists,” X used this toolkit to develop their manifesto.
The Dreamers & Doers toolkit gave me the structure and opportunity to identify an issue, imagine a future in which that issue is alleviated, and identify the steps needed to get there. I noticed the mainstream narratives around trans people, children and our futures in this country largely fail to include trans and nonbinary youth voices, even when we embody what the future is and will be.
I saw this opportunity to offer my 19-year-old voice to the trans movement, speaking to the real material needs of trans people that go beyond symbolic gestures.
Trans people will continue to exist regardless of the state of politics, but the disparate struggles faced by transgender and nonbinary individuals that challenge basic survival deserve immediate addressing and remedying so that every trans person is allowed a future.
X Vazquez (they/she) is an artist, activist and student at UC Berkeley with a focus in Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, and LGBT Studies. Follow them on Instagram @xvazqz.
Edited by NaTyshca Pickett