Virginia's First-Ever Trans Joy Zine

Too often, stories about trans and nonbinary people focus on grief and trauma. But trans people deserve stories that recognize the fullness of our humanity. That’s why we brought together 13 trans and nonbinary storytellers to tell their OWN stories – stories of love, family, and community -- in Celebrating Trans Joy: Building Communities' 100+ pages of beautifully illustrated comic strips.

Our goal? To change the narrative and debunk the misconceptions about trans and nonbinary people.

Extremist fearmongering about trans and nonbinary people has real consequences. It’s crucial that we change the narrative about trans and nonbinary people from one of fear to one of joy.

After all, trans and nonbinary people should be the ones shaping the narrative – not extremists. At a time of horrible attacks on our communities, our zine is spreading trans joy.

Join us in this work. Share copies of our zine to change the narrative about trans and nonbinary people, and help us fight for our rights by spreading joy this year.

This trans joy zine is the collective work of our storytellers and artist contributors, who participated in the ACLU-VA's trans justice storytelling academy in the summer of 2024. The storytelling academy sought to equip and empower our storytellers, who already have the stories within them, with the tools, frameworks, and affirming spaces to help these stories bloom and reach a wider audience.

At the end of the storytelling academy, participants got to go on a field trip at the Library of Virginia to learn about queer history in Virginia, recognizing that their stories are also queer history in the making and deserve to be part of the state’s archive. We are grateful to the Library of Virginia for entering this trans joy zine into their records for posterity.

We didn’t make the trans joy zine just to see it sit in boxes in a basement. Distribution is just as important as the storytelling academy, the collaboration process between storytellers & artists, and the making of the zine itself.

We have an online form where we’ve seen people all across Virginia, nearly 1,200 people so far, requesting copies of the zine to share with their trans and nonbinary loved ones, local libraries, counselors’ offices, teachers, educators, and so many others. As of today, we’ve mailed out more than 2,000 copies of the zine and distributed more than 5,000 copies in total to all corners of Virginia.

We’ve hosted four events, in Virginia Beach, Roanoke, Fredericksburg, and Richmond, to bring the community together, share resources, and celebrate trans joy. As we do this, we continue to work with our storytellers and artist contributors to share more about their work; strengthen our partnership with local and statewide partners, many of whom are here in this room; and deepen our relationship with YOU, Virginians who care for their trans and nonbinary neighbors, as well as all the other issues that the ACLU-VA works on, and want to get involved to create a Commonwealth for all.

Meet our 13 trans and nonbinary storytellers! Click on a profile below to learn more about them.

Meet our queer, Black, Latinx, and Filipino-American storytellers! Click on a profile below to learn more about them and where to find their artwork.

We love telling stories of trans joy, but it's not the only work we do to protect trans rights. In 2024 alone, we filed four lawsuits on behalf of trans students, and another lawsuit on behalf of a trans woman who works at a university. We blocked bad bills at the General Assembly from becoming bad laws.