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In the summer of 2017, she was asked to be the keynote speaker for the Houston Pride Festival. Kimberly was surprised. I had been preaching against LGBTQ+ people from pulpits a month earlier, she tells me. She recalls being harassed by Christian protesters as she made her way to the venue. Even when I was homophobic, she says, I wouldve never taken the scripture written on their signs so violently out of context. What stays with her from that first Pride is the loving welcome of queer adults asking her to bless their older parents and expressing their dreams of having a mother as accepting as Kimberly. Suddenly she was back in church, laying hands over people in prayer, asking God to reunite their families. Kimberly smiles remembering this. I prayed for more people at Pride than I ever did at church.
Free from the constraints of the church, but with no cooperation from Kais school, Kimberly moved her family to Austin in 2018. Kai and Kaleb enrolled in Menchaca Elementary, a school within the LGBTQ+-affirming Austin Independent School District. On a visit at the end of a school day, I meet with principal Eliza Loyola in her office to talk about Kais first year as a first grader. When I met Kimberly, I was like, Your daughter needs a bathroom? Okay. It was a very matter-of-fact conversation, Loyola says. Walking through the halls of Menchaca, I see signs that read trans rights in childrens scribbles, and a wall dedicated to Black excellence. Principal Loyola credits her district for all of this, and its explicit support of LGBTQ+ students, including a yearly Pride celebration. When attacks on Pride Week are going on, and your district responds with pictures of our Pride celebration, it shows that were not backing down. Were not going to hide what were doing, and in fact were going to advertise it and share pictures.
Not much has been made at Menchaca of the attention Kai has gotten in recent yearsshes been the subject of an Emmy-winning them. documentary, and been covered by Vice News and Time. She has also made a foray into acting, appearing on an episode of Netflixs The Baby-Sitters Club (her character arc closely resembles her own experience: a trans girl who is misgendered by adults around her). To Kai and Kimberly, this visibility is a kind of strategy: Fame and success feel like a lifeline, a path to a different, less vulnerable life. Kai is going to have to make really good money in her life, Kimberly says. The places that are safest for queer people to live are the most expensive cities in America. Still, it wasnt until last year, in the fourth grade, after testifying at the state Capitol asking Texas lawmakers to, in her words, make good choices, that Kai came out to her class. Much of Kais fourth-grade instruction had been over Zoom, and her then teacher, Mary Ellen Gillam, says Kai had studiously kept her camera off. Gillam remembers the day this changed, when Kai switched her camera on and spoke to her classmates about her advocacy work. Gillam guided Kai through the process of coming out. I took her aside to let her know she didnt have to answer any questions unless she wanted to. But she did answer questions, and the students asked if they could come support her at the next speech. Id never seen her be this vulnerable with her peers. That spring, Kai and her brother returned to in-person school at Menchaca. With threats proliferating online, Kimberly felt the schools security and front office staff acted as a buffer between Kai and the people who wished to harm her.

At the time of writing, 26 states have put forward anti-trans bills. Ohio hopes to enact the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, modeled after similar legislation passed last year in Arkansas, which would ban access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Meanwhile, Governor Abbots directive has been argued over in Texas courts. In March, a states appeals court, prompted by a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Lambda Legal, upheld an injunction blocking investigations into parents. In May, Texass state Supreme Court partially overturned that injunction. By June, a Texas judge had blocked investigations again, with more hearings on Abbots directive to come.