Featuring six speakers, TEDxBinghamtonUniversity: Odyssey is centered around “breaking barriers and trailblazing forward toward a new future.” Erin Reed is a transgender journalist who reports on national LGBTQ+ legislation for her subscription newsletter, Erin In The Morning. She publishes more than 200 pieces of content each year, including aggregated data about clinics that offer gender-affirming care and a ranking of states within the United States based on their anti-trans legislation. Her work has been cited by multiple large news publications. Her interview responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Can you give a short preview of what your TED talk will be about?

A: “Absolutely. So, first of all, I’m going to be talking about the fact that trans people have a history. We have always been here. We are as old as humanity itself. And I think that that’s important to talk about to start off with, because so often the news around trans people and the reporting around transgender people are that we are somehow this new thing. That we have exploded onto the scene out of nowhere, but the truth is, we are as old as writing itself. The very first human author Enheduanna was writing about the priesthood of Inanna, which is a priesthood of transgender, third gender and gender nonconforming people, so people whose assigned sex at birth did not match their gender identity or presentation. And so the first time that symbols were placed down onto clay tablets and somebody signed their name, they were talking about transgender people. We’ve always been here, [and] we’re part of what it means to be human.

The reason why I like to start with this is because, whenever we establish that we have been here for so long, we can then talk about why it’s important that we be allowed to coexist in society today. And I will take all of this history and connect it to the situation today, the way in which we’re living today, the laws that target us, as well as the things that we’re able to do for the first time in history.

I’m going to close off with a discussion about how people are finding community and safety, and my hope is that, in the future, whenever they look at this day and age, they see that despite everything that was happening right now, people felt more free than ever to come out and be themselves.”

Q: Your journalistic work is centered mainly around LGBTQ issues in the media, specifically transgender rights. Why do you think there has been such major pushback against trans rights in recent years from political leaders?

A: “The first thing that I say often is that, just like I talked about how we have a history, there’s also a long history of people needing to push back against anti-LGBTQ persecution. And so, rather than looking at this moment, as an individual moment in time disconnected from everything else, I like to connect it to the many moral panics that we’ve had over LGBTQ people over the last 100 years. You can go back to Weimar, Germany, or the 1960s and the anti drag laws and Stonewall, or the 1980s and HIV and AIDS and the massive blowback against LGBTQ people then [or] the 2000s and the 29 states that passed constitutional amendments against gay marriage. This has happened before, many times. For whatever reason, LGBTQ people are a favorite target of moral panics. We’re different from people, and so many times people take advantage of that difference, in painting us as bad or evil.

The other thing that I’ll say is that after the fight for gay marriage, whenever we overturned the gay marriage bans, those 29 constitutional amendments against gay marriage, the Obergefell case. The people who were opposing gay people, they didn’t just step back and say we lost, we’re never going to do this again. Instead, they planned, and we have leaked emails from Vice and Mother Jones that talk about how they planned to this moment here.

First, they tried with the bathroom ban in North Carolina, and that failed tremendously. North Carolina lost $3.7 billion in tax revenue. But they continued to plan and eventually they got their foothold and now we’re seeing the fruition of that.

And so yes, we are at a unique time where we are being targeted in a way that they see as acceptable. They moved on from gay people to trans people in many ways. But also, this time is not unique in the sense that this has happened before. And it will likely happen again one day.”

Q: You have resources on your Substack like the Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Assessment Map that ranks states based on how restrictive their laws are on transgender individuals. You also make videos on Instagram and TikTok that inform viewers about LGBTQ issues nationally. What made you want to start making this kind of content and why do you feel it is important to aggregate this data and make this information easily accessible to the average person?

A: “Five years ago, whenever I first transitioned, I had to travel three hours in one direction and three hours back just to get my health care. And I live in the DC area — it’s a place where trans health care is actually very good. It was hard to find that information, and so I sought out to map out all of the gender-affirming care clinics to make it easier for people.

I first went to Planned Parenthood websites and went to local LGBTQ groups. I learned about all of the different resources that are available, and I mapped them out and it blew up. Eight million views on the map. People have used this for their transition in so many places. I don’t speak anywhere without somebody telling me that they’ve used my map to transition.

And so, after doing that, I suddenly became aware of the laws that were targeting those clinics that I had recently mapped out. And I felt a duty to talk to my audience because they were looking at me for information. So I learned. I learned how to read the laws. I spoke to people at Harvard and Yale about what these laws actually do. I spoke to the local activists about what the laws actually do. I started reporting on them first on Twitter, then on TikTok.

Eventually, I, a year and a half ago, decided that 2023 was going to be a very difficult year for trans people and so many people were depending on my reporting by then that I left my job. I had two months [of] income saved up. I didn’t know if I would be able to do this continually, I thought I might have had to find a new job. But I wanted to write. I wanted to just write as much as I can. I learned about Substack and I started a Substack, a newsletter there, and just started writing every day. It blew up. People started following my work and they depended on it for information and I’ve been very blessed to be able to do this work now to where people do look at my writing and see it is very important for knowing what’s going on.”

Q: Your research and data collection is very detailed and has been used as a resource by large publications like Reuters, the Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post. The amount of research that goes into projects like the Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Assessment Map as well as your other articles is substantial. How do you go about taking on these larger, detail oriented projects?

A: “So, I have one joking answer, which is that hyper-fixation is my superpower. And I focus really heavily on making sure this information is out there. But, more realistically, we’re talking about something that affects me. We’re talking about something that affects my community. I know that there are forces at play here that are being well-funded with hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re talking about the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation. And I know that this is my way of feeling like I have at least a little bit of power, a little bit of say, a little bit of ability to push back with information, with truth. And that’s why I report the way that I do.

That’s why I make sure that my articles can give another perspective on so many of the issues that we see discussed in mainstream media about trans people. So often trans people are not given that voice in our major media outlets. And so, for me, the way that I focus so much on this research, the reason why I do it, is because I see the way it impacts people. I see the people that are helped by my research and if that’s all that I can do, then I’ve done some good in the world.”

Q: The theme of this year’s TedX is Odyssey, a voyage of overcoming obstacles. What are some obstacles you’ve encountered in your work and how have you overcome them?

A: “So, one of the biggest obstacles for any transgender journalist is being able to write and have people read your work. Right now trans journalists are often not given those platforms that we see cisgender people have. And those platforms are often used to write about us, against us, in ways that don’t platform us or give us a voice at all, in the process. We see places like the New York Times and Pamela Paul write 4,500 word spreads on The New York Times that take up two full pages and it’s just misinformation about care and trans people.

I will never have the platform of The New York Times. I’ll never have that, but what I do have is the ability to write and I have found a way to make sure that my reporting and the news that I report on is read. I’ve gone directly to the people who need to read this the most. And at this point, I don’t need The New York Times. I don’t need The Washington Post. I can reach out to the people directly and I’m so blessed and happy that people have seen what I do as important enough to read and support.

Another obstacle that I’ve overcome is actually becoming myself, transitioning, and I think that so many trans people recognize how hard that is right now. Part of my talk is going to be about how difficult the laws are right now and how complex the legal landscape is. Whenever you’re traveling for instance, there are places that you have to avoid. And in spite of that, this isn’t just something that I’ve overcome, it’s something that so many trans people have overcome. We’ve seen this current day and age and what’s going on, and yet more of us are coming out than ever before and I think that’s a testament to the strength of the community, and how much we have looked out for one another. And that’s something I’ll talk about in my speech.”

Q: What do you hope attendees take away from your presentation today?

A: “The first thing that I hope attendees take away from the presentation is that we didn’t come from nowhere, that we are part of humanity itself and we have a history. I think that, in recognizing that people can appreciate us for who we are, people can realize that we are a fundamental part of human diversity, and that they find that we are worthy of inclusion.

I also hope that people will take a little bit of inspiration in knowing that despite everything that we’re seeing, we are still finding community. We are still standing up for one another just as we have throughout all of history. I hope that people can walk away more informed and able to talk about these issues with a little bit more knowledge, not just about where we are now but where we’ve come from and where we’re going.”