On National Coming Out Day, Equality Texas Launches #TransTuesdays

It’s National Coming Out Day, and Equality Texas is marking the occasion by launching #TransTuesdays, in which the statewide LGBT advocacy group will share personal stories highlighting transgender Texans each week.

The first installment of #TransTuesdays consists of a video featuring Trevor Baize, a 10-year-old trans boy from North Texas who first came out to his mother, Melissa Baize, last summer.

“I was just super scared, I didn’t know what she would say,” Trevor recalls in the video. “We were watching some transgender children on her phone, and I finally said to myself, ‘That’s me.’ Before I didn’t know what was going on.”

Although she’s fully supportive of her son, Melissa Baize says in the #TransTuesdays segment that she sometimes fears for his safety.

“I worry of people that are misinformed and ignorant about this,” she says. “I worry that he might come across someone who doesn’t understand what it means to be transgender.”

Earlier this year, Baize spoke at a news conference in Dallas in response to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to block trans students from using school restrooms based on their gender identity.

“I ask our state officials to please see my son, see his smile and see his artistic abilities, and see his spunk, and see how much he loves to be who he is, and how happy it makes him,” Melissa Baize said at the time. “Being forced to use another bathroom would make him extremely sad.”

Last month, Trevor legally changed his name in state district court in Tarrant County.

“I’m super happy that my parents are on my side, and that I finally get to be who I am,” Trevor says.

Watch the video below.