Tacoma transgender teen testifies on her rights before U.S. Senate
Every young person in America deserves to be excited about their future, a Tacoma transgender teen girl told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning.
Stella Keating, 16, testified on the Equality Act which seeks to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. President Biden has said he will sign the legislation if it passes.
While Washington state has civil rights protections in place for LGBT people, most other states do not, Keating told the committee.
“Why am I having to worry about this at the age of 16,” the high school sophomore asked the committee.
“What happens if I want to attend a college in a state that doesn’t protect me?,” Keating said. “I can be denied medical care or be evicted for simply being trans in many states. How is that even right? How is that even American?”
Keating began her testimony with the excitement of a teen recounting recent developments. She had just gotten her driver license and loves to hike and play the ukulele. Her career goal is to become a civil rights attorney.
“This is the United States of America, the country that I love,” Keating told the committee. “Every young person, regardless of who they are or who they love, should be excited about their future.”
Keating helped start the GenderCool Project, an advocacy group that aims to form public opinion with the real life experiences of thriving transgender and non-binary youth.
Keating and 16 of her peers have traveled in person and virtually around the nation to speak with leaders in the business community.
“I’m so humbled by how some of the biggest companies on the planet are lifting up our voices and listening so that they can become places where young people like me want to work,” Keating said. “They recognize we are the next gen workforce.”
Keating told the committee that she hopes to run for public office when she’s an adult.
“I can see you as a candidate, a successful one, some day,” committee chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) told Keating.
Keating, with the support of her family and pediatrician, transitioned from her male birth gender to female when she was nine.
Her parents weren’t surprised when their only child came to them with her need to transition from son to daughter.
“From about age 3, she was fluid with her gender expression,” her mother, Lisa Keating, told The News Tribune in 2016.
“Her gender identity is different,” father, Dmitri, said. “That’s OK. It doesn’t change who she is as a human being.”
Lisa Keating founded a gender diverse youth advocacy group, My Purple Umbrella. In 2019, she was elected to the Tacoma Public School Board.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 1:58 PM.
