Alex Consani on Fighting for Trans Rights Amid Trump's Oppressive Policies
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Alex Consani is not letting an oppressive, ultra-conservative government kill her joy or mute her power.
In a new cover story for Harper's Bazaar, the trans model gets candid about the need to take action against the Trump administration's brutal anti-diversity policies, which include his many executive orders against trans people. President Donald Trump has mandated that there are only two genders, he has called for all references to trans people and gender-affirming care across government websites to be deleted, and he has made it so that trans citizens' passports have to be reissued to state the person's sex at birth.
'It's scary to see the most politically powerful and the most wealthy people in the world directly targeting my community specifically and mostly targeting the kids that are helpless to any of this,' Consani says.
The model feels a deep sense of responsibility to use her success and her platform (she has 4.6 million followers on TikTok) to represent and stand up for her community. 'I think that it's important to just be seen as human beings, because that's what we are,' she says. 'Being on such a major publication, that makes me very hopeful. Our government might not receive our identities or our differences as acceptable, but what sells, sells. And seeing people be themselves will always sell.'
That also includes peacefully protesting without fear, and loudly calling for change.
'I like to be in the streets,' Consani says. 'I like to do as much as I can. I speak publicly about what I believe in, and that makes me hopeful.' She explains, 'I grew up online. I've been on the internet since I was eight or nine, so I've always gotten hate, and I've always known that it's coming from a place of self-hatred, because no one takes time out of their day to go online and talk negatively about someone unless they have self-hatred within their own head. So I push through it by knowing that I am doing what I love and I'm being vocal about it. If you want to hate on me? Do it. Do it, because you know what that means? More clicks, more views, more money for me, babe.'
Consani may just be 21, but in the modeling industry, she is a veteran, and her exposure to the spotlight has given her a wisdom well beyond her years. Her family and their support of her has also been a reassuring force throughout her life, and a rock during these unstable times.
'I've always been surrounded by love,' she shares. 'My parents recognized when I was happy. Parents know when their children are happy. And I was always happy when I was being given the space to be in my gender euphoria.' Recalling how she was tormented and bullied as a child growing up trans, she says: 'I knew I wasn't going to be the only one that went through this, and I'm not going to allow other people to do this.'
Consani adds, 'Sometimes it can get you wrapped up in the negativity, when that's never been what our community is about. It's always been positive. …Even in the face of such negative policies, we're able to recognize that us as a community can't be affected. We're never going to go away. We're never going to go away.'
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Newsweek
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