Michigan's Transgender Unity Coalition Rises Up in the Age of Trump
Founder Bree Taylor on how her org will stand strong in an uncertain era and give hope to Michigan's trans community
Despite the unseasonably balmy weather, a collective chill shivered through the Michigan transgender community on Nov. 6.
Bree Taylor had climbed atop a wooden picnic table in the courtyard of Vertex Coffee shop in Ypsilanti, looking like an orator from times past speaking to a crowd from a soapbox. It was the Saturday following the re-election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, and Taylor had quickly organized this meeting to address their fears.
“I expected seven people to show up. Instead, there were about 100. A whole bunch of concerned, scared and battered community members.”
Taylor spoke to the assembly with the same directness that led her to advertise this meeting under the title of, “Well S—t, What Now?” She acknowledged their concerns and explained how the Republican's anti-transgender rhetoric was a “coordinated effort to scapegoat us as the problem. A new problem for our country.”
She did not underplay her own worries about what the incoming administration may do. She expressed worries that gender-affirming treatment may be curtailed, that changing names on federal documents such as passports may become more difficult. She advised her audience to be proactive, to make changes to them now instead of waiting to see what happens after Trump takes office.
Mostly, though, Taylor wanted to assure her audience that she and Transgender Unity Coalition (TUC) were already responding to potential threats.
Taylor is executive director of TUC, which she founded earlier this year after moving to Michigan from the San Francisco area. Having lived in the queer-friendly environment of northern California her entire life, Taylor realized that not all American trans people had that luxury and created TUC to fill that void.
While she found the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area generally tolerant of their transgender community, she quickly saw that the state as a whole was more complicated. It is the purplest of states, swinging between Democratic and Republican depending upon the prevailing economic winds, and making it a coveted trophy in election years.
“Michigan is a great playground for our group to experiment. To see what works and what doesn't,” she explained. She hopes that her group will “bleed into the red states,” where transgender persecution is at its worst, and legislation has been passed to make trans lives unlivable.
It is easy to see why Taylor herself is the driving force behind TUC. A soft-spoken, unassuming young trans woman, she exhibits a contagious enthusiasm for her chosen mission that makes a listener want to immediately sign up and follow her lead.
Intensely intelligent, while speaking to Taylor, you can virtually see the wheels turning in her head. She listens intently, digesting the other person's words, then analyzing and cataloging them for future reference — attributes that serve her well in her day job as a biochemist.
Taylor self-effacingly describes her childhood as “unique.” It began as tragedy, as her earliest memories are of watching her mother on her deathbed, dying of HIV. Two years old at the time and an only child, she spent her youth in foster homes. At age 24, Taylor moved to the Philippines for a year of self-exploration and “to get a bigger picture of the world.”
Still not out as transgender, Taylor began working in bioscience. She eventually began looking elsewhere for employment in reaction to the cost of living in the Golden State, which led her to a similar position at similar pay in Ann Arbor.
Currently, TUC is still building its foundation. Organized as a 501(c)(4) non-profit, they suffer the inevitable growing pains of limited funding and having only a small (but dedicated) coterie of unpaid volunteers. But Taylor's ambitions for the group belie its nascent status.
Taylor's ambitions for TUC are clear. True to her STEM background, one goal is to utilize scientific and medical research studies to combat misinformation about the transgender community. Such controversial reports as the Cass Review in Great Britain have been used to restrict the usage of puberty blockers in children in those nations. Taylor hopes to provide verifiable research in opposition to such flawed, but influential, arguments.
So too is the formation of a “trans-specific” railroad service. Similar in purpose to the existing “Rainbow Railroad,” this transgender version would “give [a transgender person] an actual pursuit of a life" and move them from a discriminatory environment to a safer one. Once there, it would help them find lodging and employment.
Taylor also wants to establish a platform that highlights transgender artists, writers, poets and other forms of artistic expression. The benefits of this approach are both therapeutic and cathartic, providing mental healing and emotional release.
Finally, TUC is to have a video component, a forum on which to conduct casual interviews. These interviews could be with political allies, or simply average transgender people speaking about their personal lives. Taylor believes that one reason why the dehumanization of the transgender community exists is because many Americans do not see them as their neighbors, or co-workers, or relatives. Revealing, on-camera interviews would give cisgender Americans an opportunity to “see that [transgender people] are normal people.”
Taylor also wants transgender individuals to benefit from her experience as a former EMT and learn CPR techniques. Already, Taylor is personally conducting classes at various partner locations and would like to expand upon these sessions and provide training that could lead others to certification as an instructor. These classes are offered free of charge.
Currently TUC's immediate priority is to push for the passage of four bills sitting in limbo in the Michigan House of Representatives. In a recent video posted to YouTube, Taylor explains the content of House Bills 5300-5303, which seek to make name and gender marker changing in the state easier. They have been unacted upon since February of this year. Taylor patiently explains the content of the bills and ends makes an earnest plea for viewers to contact their legislators to get them passed before the House majority changes parties in January 2025.
She has since announced that the Saturdays in November leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 will be known as Transgender Lobby Days. On those days, Taylor requested that members of the transgender community, in every state, go to their state capitals and protest in favor of transgender rights.
Taylor expresses the hope of cooperation among the various non-profits working on behalf of the transgender community. Their shared goals make them stronger as a united front. And she is actively reaching out to both local and national allies to coordinate their efforts. An approach she sums up succinctly:
“It's not for me; it's for a greater purpose.”
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