Elliot Page, Mindy Kaling, Chelsea Manning, Megan Rapinoe and John Leguizamo are joining forces for a message to transgender children, telling them they “are the future.”
The high-profile figures appear as part of a star-studded video called “Dear Trans Youth,” released Friday and produced by Teen Vogue and the LGBTQ magazine Them.
In the video message, the participants slam anti-transgender legislation being introduced in states across the United States.
There are upward of 100 bills targeting transgender health care under consideration in more than half the country this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.
“These proposed laws attack trans people’s access to essential life giving health care, the right to use the correct bathroom, to play youth sports, to enjoy full and vibrant lives, free from discrimination, from dystopian surveillance, from the vicious attempts by conservative lawmakers to twist our humanity into a tool for reelection,” speakers in the video say.
“Make no mistake beautiful trans family,” Page, the “Umbrella Academy” actor who in 2020 announced that he was transgender, told viewers as other participants completed the statement, “Your identity is not just valid, it is irreproachable.”
The video’s release — which also features Margaret Cho, Adam Lambert, Dylan Mulvaney, Jazz Jennings, and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (D), among others — was timed to coincide with Transgender Day of Visibility and includes a call to action and resource guide from the pair of publications.
The aim of the star-studded video, organizers said, was to offer a “message of solidarity to trans youth to stay strong in these challenging times.”