In 2022, LGBTQ Nation named then 15-year-old Harleigh Walker a Hometown Hero for her work advocating for trans youth in her home state of Alabama.

A lot has changed in the three years since.

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Teen activist Harleigh Walker spoke out for her rights & is an LGBTQ Nation 2022 Hometown Hero
“A lot of trans kids in Alabama can’t do their story and can’t share their voice, and so to be that voice is really important to me.”

“There’s really no safety in the country” for transgender people now, Harleigh told Trade Offs in an interview with her dad. “I feel unsafe almost everywhere. It’s really scary.”

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Three years ago, Harleigh faced obstacles to health care after Alabama advanced legislation banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, becoming the first U.S. state to criminalize it.

Walker became a public face in that battle when she first appeared for a live on-camera interview with the BBC. She went on to testify in both the Alabama legislature and before the U.S. Senate.

Since then, 24 other states have outlawed gender-affirming care for trans youth. Then, in June, the Supreme Court affirmed Tennessee’s ban with its decision in U.S. v Skrmetti, ensuring tens of thousands of trans youth in red states will continue to be denied the life-saving care.

Donald Trump’s trans fear-mongering in the 2024 presidential campaign and his return to the White House in January only catalyzed a sense of dread already growing amongst trans youth and their parents.

“After the inauguration, with every car that drove down the street, I had this crazy fear that it was someone coming to try and take Harleigh away from us as parents,” said her dad, Jeff Walker. “Because that’s kind of some of the stuff you were hearing, right? ‘These parents should be put in jail. These parents should be gone after for what they’re doing to these kids.’”

“I always said that no matter how unsafe I felt in my home state or how many states passed this anti-trans legislation, I felt a safeguard in the federal government,” Harleigh said. “And having a president that would get out on Transgender Day of Visibility and say, ‘Transgender Americans, I see you, I’m here for you, I support you,’ I knew that the federal government wasn’t going to come after me and my community.

“As soon as Trump won the election, I knew that was all going to change.”

“There’s been a shift,” Harleigh explained, as Trump has given license to people to “spew their hate.”

“So much has changed” since her early days of advocacy, Harleigh said. “I had so much hope back then. If I could tell that Harleigh, from two years ago, what has happened with Trump winning the election and the Supreme Court case that just came out, she’d be devastated.”

“It’s not to say I don’t have hope anymore,” she continued, “but it’s to say that my attitude has changed in a lot of regards. I feel a lot more pressure to act individually, and I don’t feel like I have the same amount of support at my back as I did in that moment.”

The just-graduated high school senior had hoped to join the majority of her friends at nearby Auburn University in the fall, but the Walkers say that door is now closed.

“I’ve always wanted one of my kids to go to Auburn,” Jeff Walker said. “But we knew pretty quickly that that wasn’t an opportunity for Harleigh. It’s not safe for her in this state. Our state leaders don’t want her in this state, and they’ve made that abundantly clear.”

“I’m going to go live my life wherever I end up happy — and continue being who I am. But that place, unfortunately, won’t be Alabama,” Harleigh said.

“We’re going to be traveling up to Maryland soon for my college orientation. And I always love traveling with my dad. Every time we travel, he’ll always take a selfie of us before we leave and be like, ‘Jeff and Harleigh going on a new adventure. Where are we going now?’”    

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