We Are Visible Our Transgender Community and Allies Rally, March and Celebrate

Spring 2023 • Kathryn Smith

For a moment, let’s go back in time.

The scene is set in late 2009. Rachel Crandell-Crocker, a transgender woman and activist from Michigan, was frustrated with the lack of positive aware-ness days on the calendar that bring together the transgender community for celebration. At this point, the only day focusing on transgender people in the United States was Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors transgender people who were the victims of fatal attacks. So, Crandell-Crocker decided to take matters into her own hands and created Transgender Day of Visibility. She selected March 31 (around the halfway point between Transgender Day of Remembrance in November and Pride month in June), and it would be a chance for all transgender and gender non-conforming people to be loud, proud and celebratory. She could not have anticipated that her concept would eventually blossom into an internationally observed day that recognizes the beauty of living as a transgender person.

Now, back to the current day.

As of April 2023, the Human Rights Campaign is tracking over 800 anti- LGBTQ+ bills in state legislatures nationwide. Over 100 of these bills are designed to prevent transgender people from accessing gender-affirming care, and even more are harmful “bathroom bills,” curriculum censorship bills, and other bills intended to eradicate the livelihoods of transgender people across the country. We are facing political at-tacks in unprecedented numbers.

1000+ advocates, volunteers and supporters marched from Union Station to the U.S. Capitol to bring attention to the urgent moment confronting our transgender community.

200+ locations across all 50 states, with thousands of people not just asking to be visible, but requiring it.

Outside of politics, we are also facing threats: 2021 marked the deadliest year yet for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the United States, with a horrifying 59 confirmed incidents of fatal violence (countless more are either misreported or unreported). One quarter of transgender people have been fired, not hired, or not promoted due to their transgender identity. Nearly one-third of transgender adults live in poverty.

Thankfully, we have countless people across the world who are dedicating themselves to this fight against hate.

On Transgender Day of Visibility 2023, we saw many of those people come together in rallies across the country to tell lawmakers that we will not sit idly by. In Washington, D.C., in an event organized by Queer Youth Assemble and HRC, more than 1,000 advocates, volunteers and supporters marched from Union Station to the U.S. Capitol and rallied to bring attention to the urgent moment confronting our trans-gender community. The rally had speakers like HRC President Kelley Robinson, who said about these bigoted lawmakers, “They don’t hate us, they hate themselves.”

Other rallies happened in over 200 locations across all 50 states, with thousands of people not just asking to be visible, but demanding it. When thousands of people gather around a unified cause, begging to be seen and heard as the humans that they are, it demands our attention. We saw people from all different backgrounds and journeys of life coming together to say that they demand the right to live their lives openly, fearlessly and hopefully. This sort of unity doesn’t happen every day in such a polarized country, and if nothing else, that should be a message to our lawmakers about the kinds of action we want from them.

Let’s time-travel again, but this time, to the future. Let’s imagine a world in which a child doesn’t fear for their safety at home or school if they decide to use pronouns that align with their gender identity. There is sun shining on a transgender person who received gender-affirming care that was seamlessly covered by insurance because there is no question that it is medically necessary and life-saving care. The only concern a transgender woman of color has while walking home is what she’s going to have for dinner.

Despite progress made in LGBTQ+ rights in recent years, we still have a ways to go — and that’s the point of Transgender Day of Visibility. We must seize these moments to celebrate our-selves and all the work we’ve done to help fuel our fight to continue doing this work and dreaming of brighter days. In order to imagine a world in which all of the above circumstances are possibilities, we have to first show our community that transgender people are here, deserve humanity, and are not going anywhere.