Kai Shappley protesting at Texas Capitol in Austin last April (Photo Credit: Equality Texas)
The petite fourth grader calmly sat at the witness table in her pretty yellow dress, reading her notes from her iPhone and without a hint of nervousness she began testifying before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs.
“I love ballet, math, science and geology,” she told the committee by way of introduction. “I spend my free time with my cats, chickens, FaceTiming my friends and dreaming of when I finally get to meet Dolly Parton. I do not like spending my free time asking adults to make good choices.
“It makes me sad that some politicians use trans kids like me to get votes from people who hate me just because I exist,” she went on. “God made me. God loves me for who I am. And God does not make mistakes.”
For 11-year-old Kai Shappley of Austin, facing down the Senators gathered, many of whom literally wanted to legislate her and other transgender youth out of existence, was an exercise she’s intimate familiar with as in her short life she has become an experienced advocate in trans youth issues in Texas.
In fact it is her experience that has landed her in the prestigious position of being a finalist for TIME magazine’s Kid of the Year. In an interview with TIME’s Madeleine Carlisle, Shappley says she felt furious. Lawmakers were avoiding her gaze, she said, glancing at their watches, scrolling on their phones or doodling on papers. When the opportunity came to ask her questions, no one spoke up.
“Seriously? None of y’all want to know more about me?” she quipped.
Video of Shappley’s testimony quickly went viral. It wasn’t the first time she’s garnered attention. The now-5th grader has been publicly telling her story and calling for trans equality for years.
She’s traveled the country with her mother, speaking at rallies for LGBTQ+ rights. She’s worked with the ACLU on pro-trans projects. She’s met with national lawmakers to urge them to pass the Equality Act, which would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
But April was the first time she’d ever testified on her own. Her reasoning was simple. “I wanted to show them that all these lies people have been spreading [about trans kids] are not true,” she says.
In an email, fellow Texas trans youth activist and Gender Cool Project advocate Landon Richie noted:
“Last year, we saw an unprecedented, nationwide, legislative assault on trans youths’ access to sports, gender affirming care, and unfettered existence in public life, with Texas accounting for the highest number of anti-trans bills filed in any state legislative session, ever. And, just this week — on top of states like Arizona, Alabama, South Dakota, Kentucky, and more beginning to file harmful bills targeting trans youth — HB 25, a Texas bill that prohibits trans and gender expansive youth from playing on the school sports teams that align with their gender identity, went into effect,” Richie said.
“Kai’s nomination is a reminder of the impact of these egregious bills and the stakes of this fight; she, at just eleven years old, has been forced by the so-called “leaders” of our state to debate her very existence and right to dignity and respect, year, after year, after year. And she is not alone. Trans youth across the country — and the world — deserve not to be pawns in a political chess game, nor fearful that who they are will be constant ground for discourse: they deserve to be celebrated, to be adored, to be cared for — they deserve childhoods where they are free to just be kids,” he added.
“Shappley is a force of nature,” TIME reported. “At only 11 years old, the trans rights activist has built a following online; children and adults have written to her saying she’s inspired them to come out.”
“It makes me want to keep on going, knowing that there are so many people who rely on me,” she told TIME .
She was only 5 when she first watched her mother, Kimberly, testify against anti-trans legislation in Texas, and the two soon began appearing together. By 2020, Kai decided she was ready to go solo.
She also spoke at the funeral of trans journalist and activist Monica Roberts, who’d been a mentor to her.
“Mom was like, ‘I’ll go up there with you,’” Kai Shappley told TIME. “But I said, ‘I think I’m strong enough to talk for myself now.’”
