Monday, March 31, marks the annual Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), which honors transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive people and their contributions to society while raising awareness of the high levels of poverty, discrimination and violence the community faces around the world.
Recent years have seen a surge of targeted attempts to make trans people much less publicly visible.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has worked with the Florida Legislature in various attempts to completely eliminate any mention or acknowledgment of trans students or employees in schools and limit all gender-affirming healthcare. So have many other Republican governors.
President Donald Trump has made the removal of trans people from public life, along with the military and the federal government, a cornerstone of his second term in office.
“We are getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military and it’s already out and it’s out of our society, we don’t want it,” Trump said in the first congressional address of his second term. “Wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad, it’s gone. It’s gone. And we feel so much better for it, don’t we? Don’t we feel better?”
Here’s what to know.
Anti-trans effects: Transgender Americans feel ‘invisible,’ fear for safety over Trump’s rhetoric, policies
What is Trans Visibility Day?
Created in 2010 by Rachel Crandall Crocker, a psychologist and executive director of the nonprofit group Transgender Michigan, Trans Visibility Day has grown into a worldwide event, TVOD seeks to normalize trans people by reminding cisgendered people (individuals whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth) that they are friends, coworkers, family members. Crocker wanted to create a day to celebrate the lives of trans people at a time when most media stories about them focused on stereotypes and violence.
“As we honor Transgender Day of Visibility, one thing remains abundantly clear: Trans people are here, trans people have always been here, and they are not going anywhere,” Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said. “To all trans young people, I want you to know: You are never alone.”
Supporters see a growing need for TVOD in the face of rising opposition to their very existence. More than 450 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures this year, according to GLAAD.
What does being transgender mean?
Gender identity is “the internal sense of being male, female, neither or some combination of both,” according to the Mayo Clinic, and is related to but separate from one’s sex assigned at birth. To be transgender or gender diverse means that a person’s gender identity does not fit within the social expectations of being either strictly male or female.
Some transgender people seek to change their pronouns, name and outward appearance to match their internal gender identity. Some may seek therapies such as hormone replacement and puberty-blocking medications. Some may elect for surgery to remove or change physical facial and/or sexual characteristics.
Some transgender people experience gender dysphoria, a feeling of distress that can happen when a person’s gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria can range from mild to debilitating, sometimes including suicidal ideation, and many trans people have credited gender-affirmation therapies with saving their lives.
What has Gov. Ron DeSantis done to make trans people invisible?
What has President Donald Trump and his administration done to make trans people invisible?
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Transgender Day of Visibility: How DeSantis, Trump tried to make trans people disappear
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
