Lena Dunham Makes Rare Public Appearance Speaking at a Rally in Front of the U.S. Capitol

Lena Dunham is stepping out and speaking out. 

The writer and director, 38, made a rare appearance on Sunday, March 31 in Washington D.C., at a rally for the Trans Day of Visibility, hosted by the Christopher Street Project. 

Speaking from the podium with the U.S. Capitol in the background, the Girls creator addressed the crowd of advocates and allies. 

Dunham, who hasn’t made a public appearance since September 2024, spoke out in support of the Christopher Street Project, an organization that builds and leverages political power to make equity a reality for transgender people across the country.

Dunham wasn’t the only person to speak at the rally, which featured several U.S. representatives including Pennsylvania’s Summer Lee, Massachusetts’ Katherine Clark, Illinois’ Robin Kelly, Oregon’s Val Hoyle, Hawaii’s Jill Tokuda, Senator Brian Schatz, Florida’s Maxwell Frost, California’s Sara Jacobs and more. 

Much of the discussion called out President Donald Trump and his administration for targeting transgender people with their recent legislation. 

After shooting to stardom in 2012 with the premiere of Girls, Dunham has spent recent years out of the spotlight. 

“I am so lucky in that the last years have been, I would argue, the most peaceful of my life,” she told PEOPLE in June 2024. 

Dunham met and married her husband Luis Felber in 2021, and previously joked to PEOPLE, “Sometimes I feel like I am boring on the phone with my friends because I have a lovely husband who I adore collaborating with.”

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And while she has worked on several projects since Girls ended in 2017, Dunham has opted not to star in them. Dunham previously shared that she won’t appear in her upcoming semi-autobiographical series Too Much after undergoing scrutiny for her body amid her Girls fame. She instead cast actress Megan Stalter. 

“I also think that I was not willing to have another experience like what I’d experienced around Girls at this point in my life. Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again. It was a hard choice, not to cast Meg — because I knew I wanted Meg — but to admit that to myself,” Dunham told the The New Yorker in July 2024.