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Daniel Trujillo is one of several trans people featured who are living their life to the fullest. For many trans people, their joy is their resistance.
Daniel Trujillo first spoke at a hearing at the Arizona legislature when he was nine years old. The now-17-year-old has spent years telling lawmakers that as a trans boy he exists, he is loved, and he’s thriving.
In fact, at one drive home after a hearing, Daniel told his mother Lizette that the only time he felt discriminated against was when he would go to those meetings. Outside of facing down anti-trans lawmakers, he lived a normal teenage life. He skateboarded. He hung out with friends. He was happy.
Daniel is content to share his story. It’s kind of his way of giving back.
“There's a lot of younger trans kids [out there who] are shy, and they don't always have the words to express the feelings that we all feel,” he told The Advocate. “And so sometimes it feels like this is the least I can do for these people that are so close to me.”
Daniel’s and others’ joy is at the center of a new campaign from the American Civil Liberties Union called “Freedom to Be.” As the organization tracks hundreds of bills going after transgender people, like Daniel, the group is pushing back by highlighting the actual lives these individuals lead.
The campaign couldn’t come at a more important time. The Skrmetti Supreme Court case could affirm Tennesse’s ban on gender-affirming care, eroding the medically necessary care that many trans youth depend on.
Freedom to Be will be a year-long, multimedia, multi-platform campaign, with a focus on long- and short-form video content, including a portrait series of trans people, digital and billboard ads, art installations created by and for trans people that will blanket the National Mall in 2025, and call to action surrounding a pledge to support trans youth, the ACLU said.
Abdool Corlette conceptualized Freedom to Be.
“We knew that we wanted to create something bold, something bright, something that embodies the like beautiful simplicity of the words “Freedom to be,” “Freedom to be me,” said Corlette, the head of brand at ACLU. “[The campaign] is about bringing as many people in. We knew that we wanted to create beautiful portraits of our primary storytellers that captured them as they are, that captured them in the beauty of their day-to-day lives.”
Corlette added that the team wanted to put power back into the hands of the trans storytellers. They asked them what comes to mind when they think of freedom to be me. What does that provoke in you? What does that inspire in you?
“We really allowed the answers from our storytellers to inform the look and feel of the campaign. We wanted this campaign to feel accessible. We wanted it to feel like we were just observing a person's everyday life,” Corlette said. “We knew that there was already so much rich authenticity in folks' day-to-day lives, and we just wanted to bring that to a wider audience.”
The focus on joy, Corlette said, is just continuing the legacy of LGBTQ+ rights movements. Trans and queer liberation always centered joy as a core element of the battle against injustice.
“What trans folks know is that their lived experience should not be defined by the people who are trying to erase them. And joy is something that is key to the trans experience. There is nothing more powerful than experiencing joy in the face of so much oppression, and we need it now more than ever. We need to showcase narratives that are not just rooted in trauma,” Corlette said. “There is nothing more powerful than saying, ‘I deserve the freedom to be.’”
Watch the trailer for the campaign below.
