Robbi Katherine Anthony
Being out is rarely easy, but for Robbi Katherine Anthony, “being out has put up more obstacles in my path than anything else in my life.” As a transgender woman and activist, she tells GO how she has seen the T in the LGBTQ+ community “often neglected and looked down on. This makes everything I do fundamentally harder to move forward.” So Anthony decided to do something about it. Combining her activism with her technological background, and know-how of start-up companies, she launched Solace, a free gender transition app to help users mark their transition progress and goals. Solace, which is a nonprofit enterprise, launched officially in December of last year. It offers features that allow users to explore the different medical, legal, and lifestyle avenues available to them depending on their transition needs — from “purchasing your first bra” to “changing [your] driver’s license gender marker.” Anthony describes Solace as the app she’d wished she’d had while transitioning and hopes that it will harness the powers of technology in a way that makes for better social progress. And it has to, as the challenges facing the transgender community are often staggering, she says, noting the 41% rate of suicide attempts. “I knew I had to do something,” she tells GO. “I don’t want people like me to die, and if there was anything I could do to prevent that, I knew I needed to do it.” —RK
