American Teenager: Transgender Displacement, and the Fight for Home

Across the United States, transgender individuals and their families are confronting escalating legal restrictions, public hostility, and deep uncertainty about their safety. For some, the response has been relocation; leaving schools, communities, and extended family in search of stability and access to care. What does it mean when trans individuals must move within their own country to feel safe or attempt to seek refuge in other countries? At what point does mobility become displacement? 

Join us for a conversation with award-winning journalist and author Nico Lang about their acclaimed book American Teenager, a powerful portrait of transgender youth navigating adolescence in a rapidly shifting political landscape. 

The conversation will be moderated by Kimahli Powell, former CEO of Rainbow Railroad and a Current Fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center whose current research examines the emerging phenomenon of domestic trans displacement. Drawing on years of experience supporting LGBTQI+ people fleeing persecution globally, Powell will explore how the language and frameworks of displacement translate—if at all—within the United States, and what responsibilities states and institutions hold when home becomes hostile.