‘Trans Lives Are Precious’ billboard on display along I-95 near Mar-a-Lago
If you’re driving through Palm Beach County on Interstate 95 over the next few weeks, you won’t be able to miss the newest billboard on display near Mar-aLago.
FOLX Health, a new LGBTQ+ telehealth company, is using the space near Palm Beach International Airport to send a message to former President Donald Trump for International Transgender Day of Visibility on Wednesday. Loud and clear, it reads “Trans Lives Are Precious.”
The message, which will be on display until April 18, is meant to remind Trump and anyone who sees it that transgender people not only exist, but that they are inherently valuable and deserving of basic human rights and humanity, said Rocco Kayiatos, a FOLX Health spokesman.
“It’s a bold proclamation of announcing our value to people who have consistently announced that we are undeserving,” he said.
It’s similar to billboards in and around Atlanta this year for the day of celebration, visibility, and action for the trans community. The team behind FOLX Health chose the Florida location deliberately, during a time when occupying physical space is still unsafe, to get the message straight to Trump, Kayiatos said.
“We decided to find the closest
anyone going there would be forced to look at messaging that says trans folks are precious, they have inherent value,” he said.
Visibility can be complicated for transgender people, especially for those who can’t yet live as their authentic selves, Kayiatos said. It’s important for them to be able to see transgender people reflected in the culture at large.
And it was especially difficult for the community to fight for recognition when Trump banned them from serving in the military and rolled back their health care protections, he said.
The former president’s press team did not respond to a request for comment.
When Kayiatos transitioned from the gender he was assigned at birth just over 20 years ago, he said he couldn’t imagine a future for himself. He didn’t see any visual indications or representations
of people like himself, outside of negative headlines or the punchline of a Jerry Springer joke, he said.
“I didn’t imagine I would live in this era of visibility,” he said. “I never really imagined we would get to a place in my lifetime that there would be not just one billboard but multiple up around the country conveying a message of trans love and inclusion.
“But with this visibility comes the backlash of narrow minded bigotry, focusing more on dismantling our
personhood,” he said.
That backlash is at the top of mind for the community, Kayiatos said. “So this Day of Visibility for this year, we were trying to think of how we could occupy physical space in this world that is still not safe to occupy physical space in” — not only because of coronavirus, but also because of anti-trans hate crimes, which are rarely solved in Florida.
FOLX Health launched in January as a health care platform for LGBTQ people
offering gender affirming hormone therapy for trans, non-binary and intersex people. The service is available in Florida and 12 other states, and the company plans to expand into hormone therapy for anyone who needs it, sexual health care, family planning and behavioral health, Kayiatos said.
“My hope is anyone who drives by understands that trans people are people and they are precious,” Kayiatos said. “Overall, I want trans
people to feel a moment of love and safety when they see it.”
Kayiatos said he hopes cisgender people, meaning their gender is the same as the one they were assigned at birth, will “reflect on how they might be able to love more and provide more safety for trans people.”