My name is Matthew, but it used to be Madelyn. I'm a transmasculine nonbinary person, and I'm bisexual. I'm currently in an open relationship with my girlfriend, who is a transwoman. The LGBTQ+ community is my family. I live in Loving House, the LGBTQ+ living-learning community at Cornell University, where I'm majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations. If it weren't for these people, I would never have met my girlfriend, made friends on campus, or had as much of a fulfilling experience during my first year of college. My family is not accepting, so my queer friends, my RA, and the queer faculty on campus are my found family. They are my solace and my hope in the face of hundreds of anti-trans bills in legislatures across the country and in my home state. I've been discriminated against in the workplace for being disabled and for being trans. I know what it's like to work in a hostile work environment, created by coworkers and managers who insist on misgendering me and trying to convince me to go by my deadname. They act like it was a choice to transition, and I could just as soon go back. It wasn't a choice, it was survival. I love my life, and I live boldly and proudly. I make space for others and blaze a path so that the queer and trans kids who come after me have space to breathe. I catch transphobia from my colleagues, but I'm a safe haven for the trans and queer teenagers at my workplace who are closeted at work but came out to me privately. This experience has driven me to succeed in school so that I can continue doing this work on a policy level. I'm from the South, and I know that there is massive untapped potential for progressive reform here. Political organizing and get-out-the-vote campaigns turned Georgia blue in the 2020 election, and we can do that in other states as well. We have to mobilize and galvanize the South. So many people here are suffering because of racial, economic, and social injustice, and they need a movement that will tell them that they haven't been forgotten, that their needs are seen and heard, and that they have the strength to fight against Republican gerrymandered supermajorities that actively harm them. I want to work with unions, grassroots organizations, and other groups to better the South and make it a more welcoming, inclusive, and uplifted region. I want to go to law school and work to empower workers and improve workers' rights. That includes protections against workplace discrimination. I want to represent people who've been discriminated against so that I can get justice for them and set legal precedent that protects others, carving a path forward. I am even more determined since the Supreme Court decision on the Christian web designer came down. My number one goal is to make it easier for the queer and trans youth that come after me: to make sure they find community and acceptance, both interpersonally and legally. It's going to take a lifetime of hard work, but with the support of my community, I'm going to do it.

My name is Matthew, but it used to be Madelyn. I'm a transmasculine nonbinary person, and I'm bisexual. I'm currently in an open relationship with my girlfriend, who is a transwoman. The LGBTQ+ community is my family. I live in Loving House, the LGBTQ+ living-learning community at Cornell University. If it weren't for these people, I would never have met my girlfriend, made friends on campus, or had as much of a fulfilling experience during my first year of college. My family is not accepting, so my queer friends, my RA, and the queer faculty on campus are my found family. They are my solace and my hope in the face of hundreds of anti-trans bills in legislatures across the country and in my home state. The queer community reminds me that no matter what happens, we will always be here. The AIDS epidemic killed so many, but we rose again from the ashes to win marriage equality and make great strides in queer acceptance. No matter what happens with these anti-trans laws, they will never be able to erase us all. I'm majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations. I want to go to law school and work to empower workers and improve workers' rights. That includes protections against workplace discrimination. I've been discriminated against in the workplace for being disabled and for being trans. I know what it's like to work in a hostile work environment, created by coworkers and managers who insist on misgendering me and trying to convince me to go by my deadname. They act like it was a choice to transition, and I could just as soon go back. It wasn't a choice, it was survival. I love my life, and I live boldly and proudly. I make space for others and blaze a path so that the queer and trans kids who come after me have space to breathe. I catch transphobia from my colleagues, but I'm a safe haven for the trans and queer teenagers at my workplace who are closeted at work but came out to me privately. This experience has driven me to succeed in school so that I can continue doing this work on a policy level. I want to represent people who've been discriminated against so that I can get justice for them and set legal precedent that protects others, carving a path forward. I am even more determined since the Supreme Court decision on the Christian web designer came down. My number one goal is to make it easier for the queer and trans youth that come after me: to make sure they find community and acceptance, both interpersonally and legally. It's going to take a lifetime of hard work, but with the support of my community, I'm going to do it.

I will be an attorney whose tireless advocacy for human rights inspires changes in the laws, policies, and culture of the United States, improving the lives of millions of Americans, especially those in my home state of North Carolina and the South.

"After all, if you do not resist the apparently inevitable, you will never know how inevitable the inevitable was." - Terry Eagleton It's a commonly used phrase, and any child asking questions about the world around them is bound to have heard it at one point or another. I've heard many variations, such as "that's just how the world works" and "that's life." However, I refuse to believe that's true. Society is structured in the way that it is, not because of immutable characteristics of natural law, but because humans decided it should run that way. From a series of revolutions, both intellectual and physical, today's society emerged. It will continue to grow and evolve as activists, professionals, politicians, and ordinary citizens push for change. To the feudal peasants of medieval Europe, liberal democracy would have seemed impossible. A complete restructuring of society is never out of the realm of possibility. One can never know what is possible unless one strives to achieve it. In the spirit of Terry Eagleton's words, I will spend my life trying to make changes to the world around me, even if other people try to tell me that it isn't possible. If I were to allow others to convince me not to try, that's when it would truly become impossible.