Art installation on National Mall shares trans voices of hope, defiance
Source: Spokesman-Review/Washington Post
May 17, 2025 Updated Sat., May 17, 2025 at 9:55 p.m.
One quilt read “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness for trans Idahoans.” Another, adorned with floral patterns and the transgender flag, asked to not have to classify themselves as male or female on their South Dakota driver’s license. And a third, from Kansas, read: “I define my existence and I exist defiantly.”
These quilts – some sewn, some painted – were part of a 9,000-square-foot art installation that stretched across the National Mall on Saturday, its 258 panels stitching together a story of transgender pride and defiance less than a mile from the White House where President Donald Trump and his administration have sought to roll back transgender rights. The American Civil Liberties Union, whose legal challenge against Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors has escalated to the Supreme Court, planned the installation, called the “Freedom to Be Monument.”
The organization began by sending quilting kits to hundreds of transgender people and allies around the country, asking them to answer the same question: “What does freedom mean to me?” One panel by the ACLU of Kansas responded to the prompt with an image of a stick-figure family. “We want the freedom to live here,” the plaque read. “Trans people often flee rural areas for great opportunity and safety. Freedom to be, to us, means the freedom to slay – to stay and still be able to keep ourselves and our family safe.”
The demonstration kicked off the first day of festivities for WorldPride, an international LGBTQ+ festival being hosted this year in D.C. Though up to 3 million people are expected to flock to Washington for the festivities, the 23-day festival comes at a tense moment for transgender rights.
Read more: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/may/17/art-installation-on-national-mall-shares-trans-voi/
The quilt panels on the National Mall. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
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