‘WE AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE’

For trans and gender-expansive American adolescents, the pastschool year has been a paradox.

Never before have diverse gender identities and expressions been celebrated so openly and inclusively, with Generation Z leading new conversations that challenge traditional conceptions of the male-female gender binary. Young among other identities, at earlier ages. There’s been an “explosion of language” in how young people express their gender, as Jonah DeChants, a research scientist at LGBTQ suicide-prevention nonprofit the Trevor Project, put it to TIME. The Williams Institute at UCLA, which researches sexual-orientation and gender-identity law and policy, estimates that 150,000 Americans ages 13 to 17 are trans. A national survey released in May by the Trevor Project found that 67% of LGBTQ youth surveyed did not identify as cisgender. Visibility and representation have never been higher, and acceptance and understanding of gender diversity continue to climb.