The following is the transcription of a speech given at the inaugural performance of the Triangle Pride Choir. The theme of the performance was "stories," and several speakers were asked to present their own stories. The political climate has weighed heavily on my mind, as I've just finished my first year of medical transition. I decided to write something that uplifted the trans community, and talked about how, more than anything, it's joy that unites us.

A year ago, I sat with a vial of testosterone, pondering a choice that haunted me for decades. That night I made a different choice. Within mere days of starting HRT, my voice dropped. I’d longed for a tenor range since my first puberty; then, suddenly, there it was. It was the first sign the choice I’d made was the right one for me.

Every time I hear my new voice, every time I raise it in song, joy runs rampant. In it is the profoundness I have sought all my life, a sense of completion unlike any other. For the first time in my life I can look in a mirror and see the person I’m supposed to be. This is transition; seizing joy and making a life for yourself outside the confines of expectations.

For all the political negativity around the trans community, this is what I'd have you know: we are joyful. We are vibrant. We are life and love embodied. We are powerful, for it takes courage to stare down hate and choose our true selves. We are creators, creating our own experiences, carving out existences fundamentally different from what the world expects of us.

Being transgender is the profoundness of a healing on your own terms. It’s finding enchantment in the everyday, whether the gentle sweep of hair along a cheek or the bone-deep satisfaction of a laugh. It’s a spiritual awakening that fills you with a light you never suspected you could possess. It’s the discovery of a sublime type of joy, and choosing it with every fiber of your being.

Trans joy is power.
Trans joy is strength.
Trans joy is everlasting.

We have been here as long as humanity has existed, and we will continue to be here as long as humanity exists. We are people you love and admire, your friends, family, lovers and confidants. We will continue to embrace our light, choose our triumphs, and become our most authentic selves. We will mourn the loss of strangers we never knew, for a loss in our community is painful to us all. We will fight to thrive in the face of hate and indifference. We will celebrate our hard-won victories, and most of all: we will flourish in our joy.

To my trans siblings, I say: be seen, be heard. Let your light shine bright; the world is better for it. We are fearfully and wonderfully made in the holiest of images, for who can understand the transcendent better than those who transcend their own selves? Stand together in righteousness, for together, we cannot be broken.

Finally, regardless of where you find yourself in your journey, know that above all else:

trans joy is absolute magic.