In recent years, the LGBT community has been especially vocal as they advocate for equal rights regarding issues such as bathroom and locker room use, team participation for students and marriage equality.

National steps forwards have included the Virginia High School League (VHSL) changing their restrictive transgender athlete policy last year after backlash from activist groups, Obama’s executive orders protecting transgender Americans, and the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Despite progress, issues of discrimination still stand, and threats to LGBT American’s new rights are recurrent with the new regime.

These issues are never more poignant than with transgender AHS junior Katana Negley’s participation in Mr. Annandale, a school pageant created in an attempt to get male students more involved.

“I thought [Mr. Annandale] would be really fun and a lot of my friends encouraged me to do it as a way to make a point that even though I wasn’t born a guy I am no different from any other man,” Negley said.

After a small period of deliberation, Leadership with the support of the administration gave permission for Negley to participate.

“I was excited to take this on, because it was going to be the first one at Annandale, and also nervous that he’ll be taken not seriously or something like that,” Leadership teacher Jessica Arias said. “We think that he should have the same opportunity as any other person to participate.”

Negley has been openly transgender for almost a year, and though he is now comfortable with who he is, his journey to self-acceptance was long. Negley attended a Catholic elementary school, and around that he began to feel different from his peers.

“I started getting in trouble for wearing the boys uniform and not presenting as a ‘young lady,’ Negley said. “Going to a Catholic school kept me sheltered from the LGBTQ+ community and left me uneducated on the subject.”

In seventh grade, Negley had his first crush on a girl, and he continued to feel pressured to suppress his true self.

“People were really mean to me, they treated me like I had six eyes,” Negley said. “Back then people didn’t really talk about gender or sexuality. I had only heard of one transgender person at that age and the way they were described was like they were something to keep hidden in the dark.”

Negley’s lack of education led to a great deal of discomfort in the beginning of high school. He struggled with anxiety and depression as he searched for his identity.

“The moment I knew I was a boy was when I realized that my life belongs to no one else and I am whoever I say I am,” Negley said. “The first person I came out to was my best friend, and instantly I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.”

When Negley heard he could participate in Mr. Annandale, he said he felt gratified. This decision on AHS’s part shows further progress towards inclusion and acceptance of all groups, regardless of race, gender identity or sexuality.

As AHS takes steps forward, however, the U.S. takes step backward. The lack of acceptance and education regarding LGBT issues extends throughout the country.

Though President Trump himself has no history of open hostility towards the LGBT community (he said earlier this year that transgender people can use the bathroom they feel is appropriate, and he has recently not shown inclination towards banning same-sex marriage) he represents the Republican Party, which currently has a strongly anti-LGBT platform.

Some of the provisions of the GOP platform include an end to same-sex marriage, support for a parent being allowed to subject gay and transgender children to “conversion therapy” to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, and support for state laws including public bathroom discrimination.

And despite Trump’s self-declaration as being “gay-friendly,” he told Fox News before that he would strongly consider appointing a Supreme Court justice who would overturn same-sex marriage. Additionally, Trump said he would remove all of Obama’s executive orders, including the one that protects the rights of transgender students, and the one that bans LGBT discrimination by federal contractors

Additionally, Trump’s Whitehouse.gov website took down the LGBT and Civil Rights pages. The Civil Rights page was replaced with “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community.”

Despite this, many believe that there is no danger to LGBT Americans.

“I don’t feel that anybody has got a target on their back,” said Assistant Principal Jamie Carayiannis. “I don’t think that [the LGBT community] or any group in our country is being isolated and being punished for some reason.”

Like many other Americans, Carayiannis views the LGBTQ+ community’s as well as other groups’ efforts to gain and maintain rights in the U.S. (BLM, feminism) as unecessary.

“I work at a school that is very diverse, I love everybody here,” Carayiannis said, “but I don’t believe there should be one group that should get something just because they’re in this group, or they should be special.”

Carayiannis views Trump’s message as one that is more inclusive than divisive.

“I think what he’s trying to do, is rather than have all of these individual things going on, and everybody wanting their own little individual piece of America, were all Americans,” Carayiannis said. “You all get an opportunity, and nobody is more important than anybody else.”

While a heartening message, there are still major divides, prejudices and inequalities that need to be addressed, and not in the present manner, before we can all call ourselves Americans first.