Alex Consani always knew she was a woman, and while her parents grew up with little knowledge about the trans community, they jumped on board to support her when she came out, and as she underwent hormone replacement therapy during puberty.
Now that she’s at the top of her game in the fashion world, Consani has become a voice, and a face, for fellow trans men and women. But it’s a tough time to be anything but a cis white male in Trump’s United States.
The model tells Harper’s Bazaar in her new cover story that early in her career, she was regularly approached by other trans people, but more recently, she’s approached by those trans kids’ parents, concerned for their children’s safety and diminishing rights under Donald Trump’s divisive administration, with its constant attack on minorities and LGBTQIA+ communities.
“It’s been really affecting me,” Consani says. “They say, ‘I support my child because of the stories that you’ve told about your parents supporting their children and how much that has shaped you.’”
She wants to be more of an advocate for trans rights, but it’s hard for her to truly understand everything those transitioning now are going through, because for her, there were simply less obstacles.
“It sucks now because the political situation in this country is going against everything that I’ve had. I had the ability to get medical and gender-affirming care that allowed me to transition, and that, in turn, validates my transness. I’m considered more acceptably trans than someone who just transitioned, even though we’re the same type of trans, just because I visibly appear more understandable to people,” she says. “The support that I’m giving people is really about letting them do what they want, but you can’t even let your children do what they want anymore.”
But communities only get tighter in times of hardship.
Consani adds, “What I will say about the trans community as a whole and what I think is so special is that no matter what privilege you have within it, whether you’re Black and trans, white and trans, rich or poor, you’re still trans. Ultimately, you’re seen as trans people before anything else that you are. And I think, not to diminish anyone else’s struggles, that it’s a really beautiful connection that [trans] people have.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.harpersbazaar.com ’
