"There's a saying that goes, 'If you're not at the table, then you're on the menu.' That helps to explain the substantive need for diverse representation... A government cannot be 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' if wide swaths of the people have no seat at the table, if large parts of the country feel like there is literally no one in their government who can understand what they are going through."

"Just knowing my surgery was successful helped me feel better. The homesickness that I'd been carrying around for so long was gone. And as was the case when I first started transitioning, the absence of a negative was more noticeable than any presence of a positive."

"Vulnerability is often the first step on the path toward justice. Vulnerability breeds empathy; empathy fosters support; support leads to action."