Trans and nonbinary Americans embrace joy as resistance in new ‘Freedom to Be’ quilt.
Who would you be if you had the freedom to live into the fullness of who you are?
That’s the question a new art installation put to transgender and nonbinary Americans across the country, asking them to weave all their joys, frustrations and hopes into more than 250 panels that will form a massive quilt.
The “Freedom to Be” project, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, will be unveiled in Washington, DC, later this spring in conjunction with WorldPride celebrations.
It comes at a time of escalating attacks on the rights of transgender and nonbinary Americans, and a looming Supreme Court decision that could determine the future of their access to gender-affirming care.
But that’s precisely why the quilt is necessary, said Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist with the ACLU who helped conceive the project.
The quilt, she said, allows trans people — especially children — to reclaim their story and imagine a life of freedom where they can embrace and celebrate who they are without fear of repercussion.
In honor of International Transgender Day of Visibility, CNN spoke to trans activists and advocates involved with the project about the importance of channeling joy as a form of resistance.
“Trans people are so often the topic, but we’re rarely the voice,” Branstetter said. “A big goal was synthesizing the full scope of that diversity into one loud display of not just what we’re fighting against, but what we’re fighting for.”
