President Joe Biden vowed that enacting the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in public accommodations such as stores and restaurants, would be a top priority in his first 100 days in the White House. But the Equality Act languishes in the Senate despite support from the majority of Americans. LGBTQ advocates said they don’t have a choice but to try to create safe places for their community on their own, without the help lawmakers promised. Through community building and political organizing, LGBTQ advocates try to make public spaces, schools and federally funded programs, such as day care, safer and more accessible for their communities, which increasingly include people who are transgender or nonbinary. "We want to be able to hang out with people that are different from us and the same as us and just be safe," said Rachel Pike, who is genderqueer and uses gender-neutral pronouns. #transgenderawarenessweek #biden #equalityact