Transhealth CEO Joan Erwin, RN, BSN (any pronouns) shared their thoughts in a recent piece in Prism entitled, Trans community stays resolved to persevere through another Trump presidency, by Sarah Prager.
“Joan Erwin, CEO of the trans health organization Transhealth in western Massachusetts, also referenced trans history in their post-election message to the organization’s email subscribers: ‘It is in moments like these that we are called upon to remember that we have walked through fire and darkness before and have survived, emerging into the light stronger and more vibrant than ever.’
‘If you think back to Stonewall or some of the big demonstrations that have happened, people really felt like they were very likely to lose their lives because of the intolerance,’ Erwin said, ‘but they felt so strongly that we should have the same rights as everybody else, they were willing to risk that.’ That’s the kind of strength they say will be needed again.
‘I’ve seen a lot of individuals on social media talking about, ‘we’ve done this, we’ve been through a lot,’ they said. ‘We’ve been reminding people because some of the younger trans and gender diverse individuals didn’t live through the ’80s and the AIDS crisis and don’t understand as much about Stonewall as the people that lived through it.'”
Photo credit: Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
