Nashville native Marisa Richmond grew up as part of a politically active family in Bordeaux. (Her mother passed out leaflets for John F. Kennedy.) In 2003, Richmond became the first president of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, and today she volunteers her time lobbying for equal rights for trans people in Tennessee and beyond.
Is there a time you can point to when your general political interest started to cross over into more specific issues?
There was a trans woman from Nashville. Her name was Christian Paige. She moved to Chicago, and she was murdered up there in '96. She was strangled, stabbed 35 times and then set on fire. I got to Chicago the day after the murder. She's buried here in Woodlawn Cemetery, so I missed the funeral because I was still in Chicago, but when I got back I went there, I stood there and swore that I was gonna do whatever I could, and so here we are 19 years later. ... When it comes to trans rights, that was the critical moment where I kind of moved over and said, "I have to start doing whatever I can to save people's lives."
Do you feel like the atmosphere has improved at all in the time you've been doing this?
In Nashville, yes. Nationally, yes. In the state legislature, it's gone in the opposite direction, I think — although this year, we're not seeing as much anti-LGBT legislation. Their focus is on abortion and denying people access to health care, and trying to weaken the education standards that are in place. And of course, making sure we have guns on every corner.
Obviously it's been a really dangerous year, especially for trans women of color …
Well, we're constantly trying to raise awareness. Tennessee's hate crimes law leaves trans people out. ... There's 17 groups in there. We're the only major group not in there. We've been fighting for years to try to get in. This year, we couldn't even get a sponsor in the Senate. They're all kind of like, "Well, I don't want to deal with this right now." And we're like, "We're getting killed. We have to deal with this. This is not an option for us."
Is there something you'd say to people who might have no idea what a transgender person is?
First off, most trans people want to be left alone. We want to go to school, get our degrees, go out, achieve whatever our dreams may be. ... There's so much hostility, and because of all these myths and stereotypes. ... We're your brothers and sisters, we're your children, we're your parents, and we just want to live the American Dream like everybody else.
More From the 2015 People Issue
The Textile Designer: Andra Eggleston / The Transformer: Bill Schleicher / The Chief: Steve Anderson / The Bookseller: Yusef Harris / The Producer: Dave Cobb / The Rookie: Filip Forsberg / The Pedal Steel-Playing Pilot: Joshua Motohashi / The Weathermen: David Drobny & Will Minkoff / The Punk Neuroscientist: Kale Edmiston / The Kitchen Artist: Karla Ruiz / The Metalhead: Kayla Phillips / The Image Master: kogonada / The Bartender: Lee Parrish / The Professor: Lisa Guenther / The Advocate: Marisa Richmond / The Captains: Kellie Hurst & Regina Durkan / The Painter: Michael Shane Neal / The Tunesmith: Shane McAnally
