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A trans boy and his mother have a heartfelt discussion about their shared fears.

He's only 8 years old, but he's worried about something very serious.

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8-year-old Gabe López shares a happy memory with his mom, Chris, about the time he went to camp and met his three best friends.

Their names were Luke, Brock, and Cooper — and like Gabe, they were all transgender boys, meaning they were boys who were assigned female at birth.

"Brock taught me how to pee standing up," says Gabe, prompting a laugh from Chris. The experience, shared in a new video collaboration between StoryCorps and Upworthy, was a joyful moment that contributed to the self-validation of Gabe's identity. The experience led to Gabe and Brock becoming "bros."

Image via StoryCorps/Upworthy.

The conversation takes a serious turn when Chris asks if Gabe ever gets scared thinking about what it'll be like growing up transgender.

"I’ve been wondering if when I’m older a lot of people will try to hurt me or something," he says, simply. "Do you worry about me?" he asks Chris.

"I worry about how other people might treat you," she says. "And it makes me upset to think about what you might have to go through."

The truth is that their shared fears of mistreatment and violence are valid — even, and perhaps especially, in today's world.

While transgender issues have been getting more attention in recent years — in 2014, Time famously declared the world had reached a "transgender tipping point," 2015 saw the emergence of Caitlyn Jenner, and earlier this year, Sarah McBride became the first transgender person to address a major political party's convention — that progress comes with a hefty price.

Increased attention to these issues has emboldened anti-trans lawmakers to enact laws designed to legalize discrimination against the group. Additionally, trans people are often the target of hate crimes. Every Nov. 20, the transgender community commemorates Trans Day of Remembrance to celebrate the lives of those who've been lost to anti-trans violence.

It's sad that an 8-year-old boy has to worry about whether he'll face violence just for being his authentic self. It's on all of us to push back on the forces that validate those concerns because no child should have to live in fear.

Listen to Chris and Gabe's heartfelt conversation below.

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100 years after a vicious hate crime, she's telling her great-grandmother's story.

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Mary Ellen Noone can't look at a bottle of nail polish without seeing red.

Her great-grandmother, Pinky Powell, was born just before the turn of the 20th century. Petite but strong, she often told her great-grandkids about picking 100 pounds of cotton before lunchtime.  

And years after her days in the fields, Powell saw Mary Ellen painting her nails and said:

"You know, there was a time we couldn't wear no fingernail polish."

As a child around 1910, Powell lived on plantation in Alabama and did domestic chores for the white woman of the house. The woman tossed away some of her old perfume and nail polish, so Powell took it home. On Sunday, she sprayed the perfume, painted her nails, and got dressed up for church.

But on Monday, the owner of the general store spotted her nails at the check out.

"What are you doing with your nails painted up like a white woman?" he asked.

Without hesitation, he reached for a pair of pliers and pulled Powell's nails from their beds one by one.

She was a child. A child who wanted a sliver of humanity in a black body. But for this white man, even that was too much. It was an act of violence that left Powell forever scarred in every sense of the word.

Even now, just seeing a jar of red nail polish takes Mary Ellen back to that moment.

It's an inherited trauma she just can't shake.

"I still have that anger inside of me that someone would have that control over one person, just because they wanted to feel like a woman."

Hear the full story of Pinky Powell and the lasting impact her story had on her great-grandaughter, Mary Ellen Noone:

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Templeton World Charity Foundation
Templeton World Charity Foundation
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Her son was murdered in 1993. Today, she’s helping his killer rebuild his life.

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In February 1993, Mary Johnson was at work when she got the horrible news: Her son, Laramiun, had been murdered.

He'd been at a party when a fight broke out, and he wound up dead.

The killer? A 16-year-old boy named Oshea Israel.

At the trial, Mary felt only rage. "In court, I viewed Oshea as an animal," she told The Forgiveness Project.

"The root of bitterness ran deep, anger had set in, and I hated everyone. I remained like this for years, driving many people away."

But one day nearly 12 years later, she read something that made her see her anger in a new way.

It's been a long, difficult journey, but today Mary and Oshea have grown quite close. Photo by Brian Morgan, used with permission.

"Tell me the name of the son you love so,
That I may share with your grief and your woe."

So goes the poem "Two Mothers" about a conversation between the mothers of Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot, sharing in their grief over losing their sons, all the while not knowing who the other was.

"It was such a healing poem all about the commonality of pain, and it showed me my destiny," Mary said.

She decided then that it wasn't enough to tell herself she had forgiven Oshea. It wasn't enough to try to block out the memories and never think of him again. No, to forgive Oshea — really forgive him — she'd have to embrace him with love. Help him get his life together.

It was the only way to get her own life back.

"Forgiveness isn't forgetting," she said in a phone interview. "People need to learn that forgiveness is for them, not the person that hurt them."

So she went to the prison to meet Oshea face to face for the first time since the trial.

It wasn't easy. And to this day, Mary says many people still don't understand her capacity to embrace her son's murderer. But what followed was an inspiring story of healing and forgiveness of the highest order.

Listen to Mary and Oshea talk about their unlikely bond in this inspiring video:

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