Sure. The best way I can explain that is with a very brief story.
During my tour across Canada interviewing LGB and trans people, I spoke with one young trans guy who was assaulted by three men in a bathroom at his university for using the men's bathroom. It was a quite horrifying story.
But after the interview I was speaking to him in the lobby, and he said, “There was one moment that changed my life.” I thought that perhaps the moment of being assaulted would be that moment, or that perhaps coming to an understanding of who he was and what his gender identity was might have been that moment. He said: “No, the most important moment in my life was in high school. I went to school one day, just like any other day, but something had changed.” When he walked into the school that day, he walked past the guidance counsellor's office, and where there had been nothing the day before, there was a little rainbow sticker at the bottom of the window.
It was the first moment in his life where he realized that somebody else in the world was thinking about him, that he was not alone, and that he could give up or let go of some that feeling of isolation. When we look at the horrifying rates of suicidality among our trans communities, that's not symbolic. To have that moment of having that isolation taken away from you, to have that moment of realizing that there are other people out there who care about you and who recognize you, that is not symbolic. That has a real impact on the lives of people.