Leo listened, his posture slowly straightening. For years, he had felt like a puzzle piece forced into the wrong box. He told Maya about the "lightbulb moment" he had while watching a video online, finally finding the word——that explained the "vague feelings of not fitting in" he'd carried since he was five.

"This is where it began," Maya whispered to Leo, a teenager who had just started coming to the center’s youth group. Leo traced the edges of the photo. "They look like they weren't afraid of anything."

"I used to think I was just a 'butch lesbian' because I didn't have any other words," Leo admitted, echoing the stories of many who came before him. "I even felt angry for a while, wondering why I had to be this way."