Kelly Clarkson invites ‘thriving’ trans teen back onto her show for Trans Awareness Week
Kelly Clarkson invited trans teen Harleigh back onto the show. (Kevin Mazur/Getty/Instagram:harleighawalker)
Kelly Clarkson invited trans teen Harleigh back onto the show. (Kevin Mazur/Getty/Instagram:harleighawalker)
Singer-songwriter and longtime LGBTQ+ ally Kelly Clarkson caught up with trans teen Harleigh Walker two years after she first appeared on the show for Trans Awareness Week.
A section of this week’s The Kelly Clarkson Show was dedicated to platforming the voices of trans Americans. Clarkson welcomed back Harleigh from Alabama to share a message.
Harleigh first appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show back in 2023. She was on the show with her father, Jeff, for an emotional discussion alongside trans actress Laverne Cox.
Jeff outlined that the work of organisations like PFLAG, dedicated to advocating on behalf of LGBTQ+ people and their families, is essential for trans youth.
In 2024, Clarkson marked Trans Awareness Week by speaking with Jenna Tea, a trans woman from Utah.
Now, Harleigh is 18, has graduated from high school and is a freshman at the University of Maryland.
Dialling in virtually, Clarkson asked Harleigh what she’d like to share with viewers.
“I really want to share that often trans people are vilified and demonised by politicians and the media generally. We’re people,” Harleigh began.
“Like I said, I’m your average young woman. I’m having a blast with my friends. I’m super busy with classes. We’re going to football games, basketball games.”
‘I’m a thriving young woman’
Harleigh also stated: “I am trans, but that’s not all my life is. But that also doesn’t mean I’m not proud to be trans.
“I just want everyone to know I’m a thriving young woman, and I think that often gets lost.”
Though Harleigh’s message is one of positivity, sadly, the situation for trans folks in the US hasn’t improved since her first appearance on the show.
Under Donald Trump’s presidency, an executive order was signed that ended government-backed diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes as part of his wider campaign against so-called ‘woke’ initiatives.
In the months following, several government departments, offices and agencies have bowed to Trump’s demands. This has included firing employees working in DEI roles as well as deleting countless webpages, reports and references to anything vaguely associated with the LGBTQ+ community, or other minority groups.
This has included the FBI painting over a wall listing ‘diversity’ as a core value, and trans and non-binary people have been stripped from the Stonewall National Monument webpage.
Furthermore, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis in the Department of Homeland Security has seemingly removed the ‘T’ from LGBT+ in reports about threats to the queer community during Pride Month.
