21 Under 21: Lily Madigan’s Political Moxie Is Fueled by Bigots’ Attention

Lily Madigan is part of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018, which spotlights extraordinary young women, girls, and femmes making waves in their industries or passions of choice.

“I don't think I deserve too much attention, certainly not as much as I get, but I'm aware that it is just because I am the first trans person to hold a role in the Labour Party,” Lily Madigan tells me over the phone as she tries to find a quiet spot in her university dorm in the United Kingdom. “I think it's really also a great opportunity to use that extra attention to make a wider difference.”

The 20-year-old who was elected as a Women’s Officer in the Labour Party in 2017 has had a lot of lemons tossed her way the last few years, but the way she tells it, it’s all just in service of lemonade.

“It's like, hey, if they're going to give me all this attention, I may as well roll with it,” she explains of the very public backlash she says she's received in response to her election to the local position. “Especially all the bad attention — I just ignore it but use it to fuel me.”

There’s a process of selective listening involved for Lily when it comes to deciding which voices to make time for — an important skill as the U.K. continues to see a major media blitz of transphobia brought on, in part, by opposition to proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act.

“I'd say that bigots are always louder, and there's so much more support, and it will always overpower the hate,” she says. “There will always be someone who wants to take me out to lunch and just talk through my day, or who wants to let me speak on their campaign, or who'll let me write an article for them.”

“There is all this hate, but it just fuels all this good stuff in response,” she says. “It's so easy to disregard the bad stuff — for me, anyway. I'm enjoying life; I'm living my best life.” For Lily, that means uplifting other voices, too.

“Trans people of color will always get it far worse than I ever will. When possible, I will always try to promote their voices,” she says, offering shoutouts to Munroe Bergdorf and Travis Alabanza.

“I just have a lot of faith in marginalized people,” Lily explains, saying people from these communities have power when they “understand our oppression and how that collides in an intersectional sense that less-marginalized people won't understand.”

“I really think if people can't sort the problems of our society out now, we definitely will once young people get into power,” she says, explaining how that faith extends to young people, too. She’s running an #AskYouthToStand campaign right now — “Kind of like my baby at the moment,” she says — trying to encourage “young people, young women, and young gay women especially” to consider running for Parliament despite the ageist barriers she’s experienced in politics. Lily says she wants to see those people in Parliament one day, and she has some tips for aspiring U.K. politicians who want to get a start like hers.

“Pick one or two things that you're interested in and just research them and go and listen to people speak about them, and then, when you're comfortable, you should speak up about them,” she says. “And if you're passionate about it and if you really want to change something, people will listen to you, no matter if you're from a marginalized group. That's how you create change and movement and make our society better.”

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