In accepting an award over the weekend,
Gavin Grimm said that he could not stop speaking out because “the
lives of trans youth are on the line.”
Time to Thrive, the annual LGBT youth
conference organized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), took place
at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek in Orlando.
At the conference, Grimm was presented
with HRC's Upstander Award, which honors those who have advocated
tirelessly on behalf of LGBT youth.
“I cannot stop [speaking out],”
Grimm
told the crowd. “The lives of trans youth are on the line.
Those lives get saved by visibility and education, something the
Human Rights Campaign does in a league of its own.”
Grimm challenged his school's policy of
not allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their
choice. The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the case last year
but instead sent it back to a lower court after President Donald
Trump revoked Obama-era guidance to public schools protecting
transgender students. Grimm, though, has since graduated.
(Related: Supreme
Court won't hear case involving transgender teen Gavin Grimm.)
HRC has previously given the award to
Katie Couric, Jazz Jennings, Ruby Corado, Michael Sam, Lance Bass and
John Quiñones.
Reality star Jazz Jennings, the
youngest person to become a national transgender figure, presented
the award to Grimm.