Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality

by Sarah McBride

Even if you hold the right positions on paper, it is easy to deprioritize something that feels abstract. When our workplaces began including openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, it changed companies’, governments’, and people’s priorities. Now there would be a trans woman walking the halls, joining them in meetings, and sharing coffee with them. It’s impossible for our rights to remain abstract when a person is, quite literally, sitting across from you. As I had realized throughout my coming-out experience, and as I would routinely reiterate, I’m an admittedly imperfect messenger for that role. My privilege and experiences limit my perspective. It’s easy to express—and genuinely feel—empathy for a young, white, conventional-looking trans girl; it’s another to maintain that empathy when your differences are compounded by race, gender expression, class, religion, or circumstance. Nevertheless, I’d made it into the White House and I hoped to utilize it to do some small good.