Huge Quilt For Trans Rights Laid Outside US Capitol Building
Image: aclu_nationwide/Instagram
A quilt stretching 9,000 square-feet has been installed in Washington DC over the weekend, as a powerful reminder of the importance of trans rights.
Made up of more than 250 handmade panels created by trans Americans, the quilt is part of the “Freedom to Be” project organised by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), with designs based around the question “Who would you be if you had the freedom to live into the fullness of who you are?”
The quilt was laid across the park outside of the US Capitol Building on Saturday May 17, coinciding with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), and the official start date of World Pride.
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Panels are emblazoned with affirmations of trans and queer power: “trans folk belong wherever”, “gender liberation is celestial”, and “I define my existence and I exist defianantly”.
The project is inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt, an iconic art installation first created in 1987 by artist Cleve Jones to remember and honour the lives lost to HIV-related complications. Coming in at an estimated 54 tons, the quilt is the largest piece of community folk art in the world, and is estimated to be at least 1,300,000 square feet.
Peppermint: “what terrifies them the most is our joy”
The quilt comes less than six months into the second Trump administration, during which time the ACLU has tracked 575 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills across the country.
Drag performer and ACLU Transgender Justice Artist Ambassador, Peppermint, said at opening ceremony that the Trump government was attempting “to push transgender people out of public life by denying the freedoms to be ourselves.”
“It’s easy to get lost in the rhetoric of those frightened by our freedom – talk of bathrooms or sports or lies about our healthcare,” she said. “But here’s the thing – what terrifies them the most is our joy.
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“That’s what it is, and that’s what this is. These quilts, this art, all of us here: this is a testament to our joy. Today is a protest, but in true queer fashion, it is also a party, darling.”
She also paid tribute to the artists and activists behind the original AIDS quilt, telling the audience” remember that we are not the first to stitch resistance into fabric.”
Speaking at the event via video call, Jones said the newly unveiled project was a “living quilt celebrating the lives of trans people today who are alive and kicking and fighting and building the bridges and creating the movements and leading.”
