This Pride month, I’m grateful to turn this space over to someone whose voice, leadership and lived experience always challenge us to think more deeply about what equity and inclusion really mean. My colleague, Kade Goepferd, MD, founded the Gender Health program at Children’s Minnesota. They are a fierce advocate for kids, their right to authentically be themselves and to have access to the healthcare they need.
Dr. Kade Goepferd in their own words
As we close out Pride month, a time dedicated to celebrating LGBTQIA+TS* people and culture, and as we continue to advocate for civil rights and acceptance of queer and transgender communities, this powerful quote from Leslie Feinberg has been on my mind:
“My right to be me is tied with a thousand threads to your right to be you.”
The quote is from Feinberg’s groundbreaking 1998 book Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue and is so meaningful to me that I used it to close out my 2020 TedX Talk, “The revolutionary truth about kids and gender identity.”
What I love about this quote is how it speaks to the intersectionality of identities and a struggle for shared liberation. It centers on the core belief that no one’s individual freedom or identity can be fully realized while others are still oppressed. This is the core belief that fuels my own fight for equity and inclusion in healthcare and beyond.
And while most folx know of my advocacy and activism around gender self-determination and access to healthcare, that fight is inextricably linked to fights for racial equality, immigrant rights and economic justice.
A powerful gathering
Last month, I attended a very powerful conference here in the Twin Cities called Building Trans Power. The conference was a gathering of thought leaders across legal, social, economic, political, healthcare and community sectors. The goal was to strategize toward a future in which all people, including transgender and gender diverse people, have equal rights, safety and access to the economic stability, community support and yes, healthcare, that they need to thrive.
During one of the panels at the conference, which featured Black transgender women and/or other transgender leaders of color, I was particularly struck by the words of one of the panelists, Tori Cooper. Tori is the director of strategic outreach and training for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). She hails from Atlanta, Georgia, and she is, as she introduced herself, “a woman, Black and also happens to be transgender”.
What Tori shared is that “the secret of the trans community is that we are a part of every community.” She went on to explain that within the LGBTQIA+TS community, all intersectional identities exist. There is not a racial, ethnic or religious background that is not a part of our community. Our community has folx with disabilities and folx who are immigrants. We represent all folx across the socioeconomic spectrum. We cannot, therefore, push for queer or transgender liberation without simultaneously creating liberation for everyone. Any fight for LGBTQ+ liberation is tied with 1,000 threads to the liberation of all human beings.
Beyond scarcity to shared liberation
This point is one that I would love for us to spend a little time reflecting on as we close out LGBTQ+ Pride month. So often, marginalized communities operate from a scarcity model, where we feel that we have to fight extra hard for what little freedom and opportunity is offered to us by those who traditionally hold power, create laws and determine whether or not we live our lives in peace or with prosperity. But we do not, and should not, accept that framework. How powerful could we be if we held hands and worked together? How revolutionary would it be if the government and education and healthcare truly reflected the complete collection of our humanity and our identities and our communities? That is the future that I want to help create.
I want to close out this Pride month by recognizing that true liberation, and true freedom, is a collective, not an individual achievement. We don’t get to the future we want, a future where we all belong and all have access to opportunities and resources, by pitting our identities against each other. If we achieve “marriage equality” by compromising on immigrant rights, that isn’t freedom. If we pass equal rights legislation by excluding transgender folx, that isn’t a step toward true equality. If we continue to create buildings that house opportunity for some, on land that was stolen from others, that isn’t true liberation.
What we can instead create together is an opportunity to move forward holding our intersectional and complex and shared identities while building new systems that work for all of us. In doing this we can also leave behind systems that were never meant to serve, or heal, so many of us.
The future we build together
So when you hear me, this month or any month in the future, advocating for the healthcare that transgender youth deserve, or protecting the ability of transgender young people to participate fully in athletics (as they have for years), or pushing us toward more inclusive and respectful language, I hope you can hear in every word I say the echoes of shared liberation.
Know that the rights I am fighting for are tied with a thousand threads to yours. Believe in your bones that the secret power we have is that we are all part of every community. Celebrate Pride this year not just for LGBTQIA+TS liberation, but for collective human liberation. Understand that when we show up for any social justice movement, we are also showing up for ourselves and our shared desire to exist fully and live freely in the future we are working so hard to build.
Happy Pride to each and every one of you.
*The acronym LGBTQIA+TS stands for lesbian (L), gay (G), bisexual (B), transgender (T), queer or questioning (Q), intersex (I), asexual (A), two-spirit (TS) and the “+” acknowledges other identities.
James Burroughs
Senior vice president, government and community relations, chief equity and inclusion officer
James Burroughs joined Children’s Minnesota as its first chief equity and inclusion officer in 2019. He is responsible for advancing equity and inclusion in all parts of the organization.
Follow James on LinkedIn.
