‘Keep your hate out of our state’: USC students protest for trans rights 

USC students, activists and allies alike, honored Trans Day of Visibility at QueerXcellence’s protest for transgender rights Friday. Roughly 40 students made the trek into Hollywood to join a protest around 200 people strong. The energy was electric as protestors repeatedly flooded the intersection, forming a pink and blue barricade of signs against oncoming traffic.

Trans rights protests took place in all 50 states on Friday, in a nationwide effort to resist the current anti-trans political climate. Tyler Sinness, a senior majoring in narrative studies, said she and some other trans students feel powerless against the anti-trans legislation in America. When QueerXcellence unveiled its plans for a protest in Hollywood, Sinness and other activists decided to organize. 

“I have a lot of experience with political organizing, so it just was a natural fit for me,” she said. “It’s been a big group of trans people putting together the flyers, organizing together, really doing the logistics.”

Sinness said the group’s primary goal in organizing the event was to introduce students who had never attended a march to the ins and outs of protesting.

“I wanted to get as many people out to the national protest that’s happening,” Sinness said. “I wanted the trans community especially, but also the broader USC community to be exposed to protesting … because all signs are pointing to needing to protest more in the future.”

Weeks before the event, flyers emerged around campus in the pink, white and blue of the trans flag. Next to a QR code, directing to a survey about preferred transportation methods to the event, read a call to action: “Join the nationwide protests on Trans Day of Visibility. We refuse to live in fear. We refuse to be ‘eradicated.’ We refuse to lose our rights.”

Sinness and their fellow activists then organized carpools, with students with disabilities being given priority. Students without a ride would meet at Tommy Trojan, where they would get to the Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue intersection by Metro. By 3:30 p.m., some 40 students were waiting at the foot of the statue.

Blake Walters, a sophomore majoring in gender and sexuality studies, said they hoped this show of mobilization by trans students would send a message of resilience to USC staff.

“There’s already a lot of things [being done on campus] to make [transgender people] feel included, but I feel like a lot of it is performative,” Walters said. “I hope that [this protest] shows … USC that trans students and allies are here, we’re not going away and that we’re all willing to fight for what we believe in.”

While waiting for others to arrive, students created and distributed protest signs for the march. Zachariah Steele, a sophomore majoring in cinema and media studies, brought a handmade sign that read “fix your heart or die” — a reference to “Twin Peaks.”

“When [David Duchovny’s] trans character came out, [David Lynch’s character] told everybody who didn’t like it to fix their hearts or die,” Steele said.

At 4 p.m., the group headed for the Metro. Students handed out masks, water bottles and phone numbers in case of an emergency.

By the time the group arrived, 45 minutes later, the event was in full swing. Two hundred protestors flooded the intersection with signs and banners, chanting: “Trans youth are under attack! What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” 20 minutes in, police arrived on the scene in riot gear, then appeared to quickly leave without altercation.

Midway through the event, QueerXcellence leaders read off a list of demands that included gun reform, respect for AIDS activism, the protection of trans women and better conditions for unhoused, unemployed and low income communities.

The procession came to a halt an hour and a half later at Wilcox Avenue and De Longpre Avenue. Protestors then lay down in the center of the intersection with their eyes closed, the rest of the group encircling them, in a moment of silence — a “die-in” demonstration, reminiscent of those used in the AIDS protests of the 1980s.

Several speakers shared stories of overcoming transphobia in their own lives, as well as the stories of trans people who had passed away. One activist gave an impassioned speech directed toward those who support anti-trans legislation.

“If you guys don’t believe that [trans] peoples lives matter, you guys should take a good look in the mirror,” she said. “The fact that you guys think you can attack us every fucking day because you guys think this is a choice is pathetic. Did you guys wake up in the morning and go like, ‘Oh mom, dad, I’m straight?’ No. You guys did not, it was not a choice. We were born the way we are, we didn’t choose this.”

Back at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, where the march concluded, Sinness said she hoped their demonstration would make adversaries understand that, if those in power were to succeed at eradicating trans rights, their bigotry would not stop there.

“It’s incredibly hard to be a trans person going to college right now, especially as I’m in my last semester, and a lot of the hate is directed towards trans women, in particular,” Sinness said. “It’s just exhausting and I hope that [adversaries] are able to recognize that, if they’re coming for our rights first, they’re coming for your rights next.”