To refresh your memory, in October 2021, Dave Chappelle’s gross and hateful comments in his Netflix special The Closer caused an uproar within the LGBTQ community and Netflix’s own trans workers staged a walkout. Then, of course, came the wave of “comedians” using gender-affirming surgeries and trans lives as a punching bag for cheap laughs.

Last year, we saw several anti-LGBTQ laws sweep the nation, but this year hundreds of new hateful laws, mainly in Republican-run states, are being introduced and passed-many of them targeting trans youth and trans athletes.

I would love to run around with my rainbow cape and be blissfully happy, but all I can think about is how awful it has been lately for LGBTQ people–especially those of us who identify as transgender or non-binary.