Name: Sylvie Malamet

Social Justice Group: Trans Rights: Gender Affirming Care (B)

Date of Fieldwork: February 3, 2025

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):NYU protest

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:

Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I went to the protest in front of the NYU buildings to fight for them to bring gender affirming care back.

I got there early, around 6, when the event was supposed to start around 6:30, and me and my dad looked around and got a feel for our surroundings. It was at Saint Vartan Park, right next to one of the main NYU buildings, on 1st avenue and 35th street. When we met up with Alex, and their dad, we entered the park, which was already starting to fill up. It was already dark out and the park lights were the only source of light. The stage was very small, and from where we were, we couldn’t see it. However, the speakers were incredible, and we could hear every single word spoken to the audience. It was incredible. There were many speakers who came up and told their stories. Many of them were trans and most of the trans people had gotten, or were still getting gender affirming care at NYU when that happened. If the speaker wasn’t trans, they were a parent of a trans person, and a huge ally. It was incredible to hear about all of these heartbroken people, facing first hand, how horrible the next four years of everyone’s lives will be. Many people were carrying signs or flags and every person there was ready to fight. There were many cheers, and one of the most common ones was, the speaker says,”When trans rights are under attack, what do we do?!” The audience yells back, “Stand up; fight back!” There are many different versions of the question, but the answer is always the same. This symbolizes how there will be many challenges thrown at our community, but we always have to do the same thing, “Stand up; fight back.”