West Virginia Del. Danielle Walker (D) knows what it’s like to have the odds stacked against her. Not only is she one of only 15 Democrats in the state legislature, facing a Republican supermajority intent on passing hateful legislation, but she is also both the only Black and the only LGBTQ+ state lawmaker.
The queer and progressive activist has endured so much racist and anti-LGBTQ+ hate that she has had to hire her own security to accompany her to work every day. Nevertheless, she refuses to give up her fight for a more inclusive West Virginia.
“The people of this state keep me motivated,” Walker told LGBTQ Nation. “Whether they learn to love me or love to hate me, I take it all as love.”
In early February, the West Virginia House passed a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth in an 84-10 vote. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it is likely to pass.
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House Democrats, including Walker, have criticized West Virginia Republicans for prioritizing political points over protecting the lives of children.
“It’s frustrating that we do not look at evidence-based science,” she said, adding that “when you do an injustice to one of us in the queer community, you do it to all of us.”
Under the guise of “protecting children,” Republicans continue to target gender-affirming health care in their crusade against trans rights. Anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and activists continue to spread the lie that hordes of trans kids are undergoing irreversible gender-affirming surgeries.
In reality, they almost never do. Instead, trans youth are often given reversible puberty blockers to prevent their bodies from going through traumatizing developments while they socially transition and work with medical professionals on their future courses of treatment.
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all support gender-affirming health care for trans youth and have spoken out against legislation to limit it.
“I don’t feel that my colleagues are active listeners,” said Walker, who is also the Vice Chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party. She added that she believes the legislation is “a far reach of government.”
“In West Virginia, we force pregnancy, we force birth, and now we want to force how parents support their children.”
Walker – who gave an impassioned speech against the bill while draped in a trans flag – wants trans youth in the state to know they have an advocate.
“I stand with you; I stand for you; and I stand for legislation that’s going to protect you, that’s going to make you want to stay in the state, raise your family if you choose to have one… I want you to be exactly who you are.”
Walker came out in 2020. She was moved to embrace her own queer identity after her late son came out to her and opened up about his suicidal thoughts.
“He felt that dying by suicide would be more important than telling me and not knowing what the reaction of our family was going to be,” she said.
That’s when she decided to follow her own heart as well.
“I said I wasn’t going to put any barriers or boundaries around love… and after losing that same child to Leukemia in 2021, I was no longer going to allow anyone to tell me who I ought to be and what I should not succumb to in order to win votes. I was going to be an unapologetic Danielle Walker, and that’s who I am.”
“And, as a Black woman,” she added, “you just get tired of hiding in the damn shadows.”
As the only Black and LGBTQ+ member of the state legislature, Walker says there is a lot on her shoulders, especially with a lack of support from colleagues for the social and environmental justice causes she champions.
“I don’t want to break a glass ceiling,” she said. “Because now I am reaping those shards, it’s cutting into my skin… Once that glass ceiling is broken, there is someone else who has to sweep up those shards of glass, and it’s probably someone who is marginalized.”
“What we need and what I demand is an open space for all… And no one has to bring a lawn chair. For every ear and for every eye and for every heart that I can reach, I know there will be a change. I will no longer be a storyteller but using my platform so truthtellers can share their own stories. That is progressive change.”
Although she is vastly outnumbered, Walker’s got big plans.
She wants to ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in housing and employment, abolish the felony murder legal doctrine, decriminalize cannabis, and reform the state’s foster care system. She is also the sponsor of a bill aimed at creating tiny home communities for the unhoused. And every year, she introduces the CROWN Act, which would ban discrimination based on hair style and texture.
“I’m everywhere doing everything,” she said.
Despite the barriers she’s up against, Walker manages to hang on to hope.
“The hope lies within the people,” she said.
More and more, she continued, people affected by draconian racist, anti-choice, and anti-LGBTQ+ laws are asking what they can do to help foster change.
“I have seen that the pain is changing into power or into progress.”
“They understand that that one vote, or that one protest, or that one march is making a difference. It is showing people across the state that we stand united.”
There is momentum, she said, but she also knows change won’t happen overnight.
“It’s going to happen with work. Words without work are a waste, and let me tell you, West Virginians are not a waste.”
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
