I am being evicted without just cause from the only apartment that I can afford in the middle of a midwestern winter. This holiday housing crisis follows years of filing grievances about my city's housing project for the disabled and elderly and warning the relevant local officials that a retaliatory eviction was looming.

Most recently, I made a complaint of discrimination on the basis of gender identity against the housing administrator of the federally funded independent living facility where I live.  Soon after, the resident services coordinator from the facility refused to make arrangements with me to sign a new lease, stating explicitly it was because I am autistic.

There are technically legal protections in place intended to prevent this kind of discrimination against autistic individuals; however, non-binary and transgender people are not a protected class in the state of Wisconsin.

In the 1980's, Wisconsin was the first state to affirm the rights of our gay and lesbian residents.  We demonstrated that we were committed to extending our famous midwestern compassion to all of our neighbors, regardless of whom they loved.  Decades later, of the approximately thirty states that protect their citizens from discrimination on the basis of sexual preference, we’re the only one that doesn’t also extend anti-discrimination legislation to protect individuals on the basis of gender identity.  It’s time that changes.

I have experienced housing insecurity and homelessness at every stage of my life and that's not unusual for people like me.  According to the Trevor Project, "Homelessness and housing instability were reported at higher rates among transgender and nonbinary youth, including 38% of transgender girls/women, 39% of transgender boys/men, and 35% of nonbinary youth."

My goal with sharing my story is to shed light on the dim reality of how Wisconsin creates winter homelessness for our most vulnerable neighbors. 

I hope you'll sign and share this petition, and join me in asking Wisconsin representatives to make meaningful changes to our anti-discrimination legislation. Perhaps I might be the last non-binary or transgender person in Wisconsin that has to face homelessness during the holidays.