As 2022 saw a rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, legislation and hate crimes, the year also saw an increase in the number of LGBTQ activists speaking out against hateful speech, discrimination and laws that infringe upon their rights.
Among those advocates are LGBTQ teens, who have been most significantly impacted by legislation such as Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill”/Parental Rights in Education Law, bans on transgender girls participating on sports teams that match their gender identity and restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-nonconforming youths.
Polls have shown that Generation Z Americans – those born from 1997 to 2003 – have the highest rates of identification with the LGBTQ community at 21%, compared with 7.1% of total U.S. adults. Here are five Gen Z LGBTQ teens who made their voices heard in 2022:
Arkansas teen Dylan Brandt has been outspoken this year during the state’s trial over a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender and gender non-conforming youths.
As a plaintiff in the case alongside three other transgender teens represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, Brandt testified in November on the positive impact hormone therapy has had on his life and the risks behind withholding the same care for other LGBTQ youths.