Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the heart of this debate: transgender and gender-nonconforming kids themselves. In this talk, award-winning journalist Nico Lang shares their journey of spending a year traveling the country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary and genderfluid teens and their families. Drawing on hundreds of hours of on-the-ground interviews with them and the people in their communities, Lang paints a vivid portrait of what it’s actually like to grow up trans today.
“What so many people who wish to wipe out the very existence of trans youth forget is that they aren’t boogeymen or political talking points,” they told People magazine. “They are just kids, trying to figure out who they’re taking to prom this year and finish their homework in time to hang out with their friends. They’re still figuring it all out.”
AUTHOR BIO:
Nico Lang is a nonbinary award-winning journalist with over a decade of experience covering the transgender community’s fight for equality. Their work has appeared in major publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Washington Post, Vox, BuzzFeed, Jezebel, The Guardian, Out, The Advocate and the L.A. Times.
Lang is the creator of Queer News Daily and previously served as the deputy editor for Out magazine, the news editor for Them, the LGBTQ+ correspondent for VICE and the editor and co-founder of the literary journal In Our Words.
Their industry-leading contributions to queer media have resulted in a GLAAD Media Award, 13 awards from the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists (NLGJA), and four awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, including the 2023 Online Journalist of the Year.
Lang is also the first-ever recipient of the Visibility Award from the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), an honor created to recognize their impactful contributions to reporting on the lives of LGBTQ+ people, and was honored by the Human Rights Campaign with its Guardians of Truth award last year.