As a long-time LGBTQ advocate and a cisgender gay man, let me point out that my trans colleagues are particularly courageous. I could always, if I chose, melt into the background and disappear.

Most of my trans friends and fellow advocates don't have that luxury. Their mere public existence focuses hatred on them, often hatered dished out by strangers who openly urge them to stop existing.

Choosing to be even more public, which many trans peope do in order to make the world a safer more loving place, takes brass gonads.