The American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) took a stand for trans rights last weekend, debuting a massive art installation in front of the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The 9,000-square-foot piece, titled the , featured 258 six-foot-square quilts made by members of the trans community and their allies across the country.
“This is a monument where joy and resistance are stitched into every thread,” Abdool Corlette, the ALCU’s head of brand and creator of this “Freedom to Be” campaign, told me. “We want the message to be loud and clear: Trans people have always been here, and we always will be.”
The quilts’ unveiling on Saturday coincided with the start of WorldPride, the international LGBTQ pride event that is holding its ninth edition this year, in D.C. The event, which runs through June 8, marks 50 years of pride celebrations in the nation’s capital.
But it also comes amid an effort by President Donald Trump and conservative lawmakers to roll back trans rights. The ALCU staged the project to help drum up support for the trans community ahead of the forthcoming Supreme Court case , which will decide if state bans on gender affirming care for minors violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Artists painting quilts for the Monument. Photo: courtesy of the ACLU.
“This case is not just about gender affirming care. It is about bodily autonomy. And we can expect to see other attempts to restrict people’s rights,” Corlette said. ”We also believe that the government should not be in the doctor’s office with you when you’re making extremely sensitive personal decisions, whether that’s gender affirming care or reproductive rights.”
Trump has also issued an executive order recognizing only two sexes, and banned use of federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” In a separate executive order looking to control programming at the Smithsonian Institution, he has specifically complained about’s forthcoming American Women’s History Museum featuring the accomplishments of trans women athletes at Smithsonian museums.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s of quilts celebrating the trans community on display in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Photo: courtesy of the ACLU.
“The idea of being part of something larger and collaborative amongst 250 other trans artists was equally as exciting as [it was] heartbreaking for me!” Courn Ahn, a graphic designer from Portland, Ore., who made one of the quilts, told me. “It’s still an incredibly scary time to be a trans person in this country right now, and any organizing around our community and especially our joy, is incredibly needed.”
The Freedom to Be Monument was conceived of as a way for trans people to visualize a life freed of marginalization and persecution, where the government is not limiting trans rights or trying to prohibit gender expression. It’s meant to celebrate the diversity of the trans community, with 1,000 artists banding together to create the colorful display and a safe space.
People view sections of the quilt laid out on the grass on the National Mall at the launch of World Pride on May 17, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo: by Samuel Corum/Getty Images.
“It feels like every trans community across this country sent a panel to memorialize their story and to make sure that their joy, their resilience, their fight, will not be erased,” Corlette said. “Even as President Trump continues to target trans people and try to erase them from public life, the Freedom to Be campaign is all about resisting that erasure and reclaiming the power for trans people to tell their own stories.”
The project, of course, is building on the legacy of the famed NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which debuted on the National Mall in 1987 as a tribute to the LGBTQ community during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The world’s largest piece of community folk art, it has since grown to include 50,000 panels together weighing over 350 tons.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s of quilts celebrating the trans community on display in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Photo: courtesy of the ACLU.
“I feel that every generation has a personal responsibility to continue the work of the AIDS Memorial Quilt,” Corlette said. “Those pieces of art were there to remember those who have passed, but they were also a celebration of the rich, diverse lives that those folks lived. That’s the through line that connects to the Freedom to Be project. Folks who are transphobic, their goal is to remove all of the joy and the beauty in trans lives, and there are moments like this where we have to fight that.”
The new quilt project is small by comparison, but still made a large impact on the mall, spelling out “Freedom to Be” in giant letters for a display about the length of a city block.
“Any kind of advocacy with quilting, I think is incredibly cool, because historically that’s what it’s been used for as well,” participating artist Theo Randall, a self-taught quilter from Grand Rapids, Mich., told me. “The quilting circles are where women’s rights started up… naturally born out of these activities that are bringing marginalized groups together.”
Courn Ahn’s quilt for the . Photo: courtesy of the ACLU.
The individual quilts contain messages of love and acceptance, like Ahn’s quilt with the words “Trans Folks Belong Everywhere” surrounded by blue flowers that represent blossoming into one’s identity.
“The use of the word ‘belong’ is especially crucial to me,” they said. “I don’t want to be tolerated anywhere—I want to be celebrated everywhere, to feel part of a larger community without question. I want to belong.”
Theo Randall’s quilt for the . Photo: courtesy of the ACLU.
Randall’s contribution to the quilt is based on a quilting pattern called , featuring a pride flag hanging on a single family home they created in 2021 to sell as a fundraiser for the Grand Rapids Trans Foundation. They think that acceptance of the trans community can only grow as people actually meet and get to know trans people for themselves.
“Exposure, I think, is really important,” Randall added. “One by one, a person’s mind is changed, and then they can take it back to their communities and be like, ‘hey, you know being trans isn’t so scary. They’re just people!’”
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
