Moving PSA shows father learning to accept trans daughter: ‘This is me, I won’t lose you’

A moving public service announcement (PSA) from a project to prevent transgender suicide shows a father learning to accept his trans daughter.

The two-minute video starts with the father – a farmer – driving a tractor. It then shares that more trans teens have attempted suicide since states passed anti-trans laws. The father stops driving to view a photo of himself with a male child. The pair are wearing matching camouflage jackets and the photo reads: “Holter and Dad, father-son team 1st place, archery.”

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The father looks thoughtfully at the photo. The video then cuts to him entering the house, where his child is waiting in the kitchen and now presents himself as a girl.

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The father immediately apologizes for something he said earlier. “I’ve been thinking a lot. If you want to change your name, if you want to wear a dress… I don’t know what support you need, but let’s give you some for all this, this transgender thing.”

The girl’s face lights up. “Wait, are you serious? Dad, what is this?”

“This is me supporting you,” he replies. ‘This is me, saying I love you. This is me, I won’t lose you.

The couple embraces as the father looks close to tears. He tells his daughter he loves her, and after a pause he calls her by her new name: Holly.

The video was produced by the Not Losing You Film Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent suicide among trans youth and support rural LGBTQ+ youth during the 2024 elections.

The website explains that the filmmaker, James Lantz, “protested and was arrested at the Pennsylvania State Capitol to draw attention to the five suicides of trans and non-binary youth that have occurred in the same Pennsylvania county where many anti- LGBTQ legislation in Pennsylvania was introduced. sponsored, supported and pushed by GOP Majority Whip, State Senator Ryan Aument.”

Lantz’s advocacy work can also be found through his web series Angry Gay Grandpa.

The onslaught of legislative attacks on trans youth has created a mental health crisis among the group. A study published in September found that anti-transgender laws have a direct, causal link to suicide attempts among young people and that suicide attempts increased by as much as 72% after the passage of such laws.

Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is in trouble or crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by transgender people and will not contact police. The Trevor Project offers youth a safe, judgment-free place to talk via chat, text (678-678) or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available from all three resources in English and Spanish.

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