Becoming a Trans Ally: Ahmed Shalabi recounts how his personal experience with biases led him to become a Trans ally

Ahmed Shalabi

Inside Sales Campaign Manager

United States

My journey to becoming a trans ally took many different turns throughout my life. I started out life growing up in a small town in southern Indiana, US. Racism was very prominent and being anything other than straight was not acceptable. We were the only Muslim family in town. That was very difficult. Some people wouldn’t date me or be my friend because I didn’t look like them or believe what they believed. Later in high school, I moved to the city. During that time, I didn’t know what many of the letters in LGBTQIA even stood for. I hadn’t met anyone from that community until I was 17.

It wasn’t until my college years that I began my journey as an ally. I made a friend on my college tour.  We hit it off immediately. We even joined the same fraternity. He came out as gay and told me how he couldn’t tell his family or our fraternity brothers. While I wasn’t gay, I could relate to how it felt to live life behind closed doors. This was the mindset that opened my heart up to anyone who couldn’t live life as their authentic self.

Fast forward to 2014, I found myself joining the LGBTQIA chamber of commerce. I met a man who was trans. We spoke in detail about his life, his struggles, and how others can help support the trans community. For me this was bigger than anything I have experienced so far in my life. It led me to a friend whose child was also transgender. She lost her entire family because of it. She didn’t want her son navigating life alone, without his true identity, and without love and support. I admire the courage of them both. 

Word got out about their journey and a documentary started filming. They filmed the lives of 4 young people over the course of 5 years. Through this documentary and my longing to learn more, I started to realize the importance of allyship. I began to familiarize myself with different pronouns, I made sure I used inclusive language. I speak out when I hear microaggressions or hate speech. I’ve met people who are affected by bills riddled with misinformation, workplace discrimination, lack of medical care, and even acts of violence.

In my opinion, this is not a way to live. This shouldn’t be how humans treat each other. As an ally I will continue to learn, help, and support transgender and nonbinary people. I hope that I can show a few folks that we can build a world that is safe, kind, and accepting for everyone.