Michigan has the highest percentage in any state in the U.S. of transgender adults without a form of ID that has the correct gender listed at 77.7% of transgender adults. Nationally, it is estimated that more than half of transgender adults, or 476,000 people, lack an accurate ID.
Emme Zanotti
Emme Zanotti, the Third Vice Chair of The LGBT and Allies Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion specialist, joined Alek and Doug in early March to discuss her column about the recent barrage of anti-gay and trans legislation adopted in the United States, and her personal journey as a trans woman.
Emme Zanotti writes, “American moms and dads are being punished for loving their transgender children. Stop and think about that. The LGBTQ community is on the verge of access to vital familial and societal acceptance, but from Lansing to Washington D.C., Republicans are impeding that progress — by prosecuting parents.”
Friend of Watershed Voice, Emme Zanotti, on Pride: “And that’s what the first Pride was. It was a revolution fueled by the fire of Black trans women and trans Latinas. A revolution generated by the kind of spark and passion that can only exist in the hearts and minds of people on the receiving end of an oppressive force so strong that it’s quite literally costing them their lives. The First Pride was a language of the unheard, to paraphrase Dr. King.
“And through it all, we (white people, yes the gay and trans ones too) tried not to uplift the voices and stories of Black and Brown people, but rather we tried to silence them. For decades we erased their memory from the origin story of Pride. We erased their faces from our dining room tables, and we erased their experiences and wisdom from our decision making tables. The people who have given the most to our cause haven been rewarded the least. I’ll repeat. The people who have given the most to our cause have been rewarded the least.”