Empowerment, pride, self love: What Trans Visibility Day means for trans North Texans
Transgender Day of Visibility, created in 2010 by trans advocate Rachel Crandall, is an international annual event meant to uplift and celebrate the trans community.
For many, the wave of legislation targeting gender-affirming care and LGBTQ+ rights makes this year’s Trans Visibility Day more important than usual. Here’s what the day means for a few trans people and advocates in Dallas-Fort Worth, in their own words.
Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Naomi Green
Green, 40, is a trans woman and community leader through multiple LGBTQ+ organizations, including Equality Texas, the Texas Pride Impact Funds and the North Dallas LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce.
What does Trans Visibility Day mean to you?
For me, trans visibility day is about being proud. It’s about letting people know that we are still here, we are humans. It’s about really have pride in being trans and trying to be visible.
What are some misconceptions about trans people?
There is a misconception that we are all a monolith. And we are all different, like everyone else in the world. I think that this day is really about displaying the variances in our trans identities and personalities and who we are as people.
And in 2023, even more so. Even at the state level with a lot of these different laws trying to be passed, people are really trying to group us together and create hate and fear towards a certain community by the actions of the one or few.
Another big misconception is that drag queens and trans people are the same. Or that trans women and drag queens are the same. Drag is a thing, it is something that is done. So this is not something that is specific to just the transgender community.
What do you feel when you see legislation that targets trans rights?
Anger, for one. Concern and fear. You have to wonder, how far is this going to go? How much of an impact are these laws going to have on people in our community? Are they going to try to run us out of the state? Where is this going to end? Are they going to try and arrest us all? Are they going to start coming for our freedoms, are they going to start coming for our lives?
Where are they going to stop or are they never going to stop?
What advice to you have for young trans people in Texas?
Continue to stand up for yourself. Continue to stand up and show out. Continue to rally allies and get as many allies as you can to help in this fight.
More importantly, get your friends, your family members to show up and vote in these local, regional, state and national elections.
Besides voting, what should allies do to support trans people?
Speak out. If you see something, say something. If you hear something, say something. Correct people when they’re wrong on their untruths. Go to the Capitol if you are off on a day and there is a rally at the Capitol and speak out and show support. Call your elected officials.
What should leaders be doing to support trans people?
Listen to the communities that are impacted, educate yourselves. Don’t just listen to the narratives being pushed. Talk to groups from the LGBTQ or trans community to learn more about them before making uneducated decisions about what you’re voting for.
Anything else to add?
I think it’s important for leaders to stop trying to tell parents how to be parents. Because I think that it takes a lot for parents to listen to their children and be brave enough to stand next to and beside their children and help their kids make decisions.
We’re attacking parents and their children and telling them that they’re wrong for allowing their children to go through gender-affirming care and seek gender-affirming care so that their kids are able to grow up without suicidal thoughts and feeling like they are out of place in this world and in their bodies.
Nell Gaither
Gaither, 62, is a trans woman and president of Trans Pride Initiative, a Dallas-based nonprofit that aims to support transgender and gender diverse persons in healthcare, housing, employment, education and public accommodations. The group also advocates for trans people who are incarcerated.
What are your feelings surrounding Trans Visibility Day?
Some of us call it Trans Empowerment Day. Because trans visibility is just not enough. And in some ways, visibility is actually what’s causing some of the problems. We become more visible and people have decided to exercise their transphobia. What we need is empowerment.
What does trans empowerment look like?
Visibility is simply seeing somebody. Empowerment means giving people the ability to live their own lives. Empowerment is when you give people the power of self-determination and the power of their own agency.
For example, in Dallas, we have a nondiscrimination policy in employment that says you cannot discriminate against somebody based on gender identity. But that discrimination goes on all the time, and we don’t have the power to actualize that. So visibility is having the nondiscrimination policy, but empowerment is making that policy effective by changing the system.
How has the experience of being trans in Texas changed over the years?
When I first started coming out in the 2000s, there weren’t really support groups. There were social groups where people could meet other people who were trans. I kept track of the membership records, and I remember being so afraid that if the list fell into the wrong hands, people on the list could be fired.
That still could happen, but enough people are out now that we aren’t as afraid of that. Visibility has helped. But we should be past that now. Just the general conversation has gone from something you couldn’t even talk about in public 20 or 30 years ago, to now people more commonly know that being trans is something that exists for a significant percentage of the population.
How does it feel to be a trans person in Texas in 2023?
It’s kind of scary. For me, I am making plans like, how do I dress when my medication is cut off? And that’s just on a personal level. On how do we address it as a community, I don’t know. I’m kind of in disbelief in some ways that human beings actually take the positions they’re taking.
I don’t have a good answer of what we do next. All I can do is continue to do what I think is worthwhile and advocate.
What is your advice to young trans people?
Try to recognize that just because someone says something doesn’t mean they’re right. Look at yourself and know what’s right for you. And prioritize what you know is right for you.
What should allies do to support trans people?
Be intentionally inclusive. I think that may sound simplistic in some sense but just including trans people in decision making, including trans people in determining activist direction. You have to empower trans people to be part of the decision making process when transgender people’s lives are being affected.
Leslie McMurray
Leslie McMurray is the transgender education and advocacy coordinator at the Resource Center in Dallas. As a trans woman, Leslie said Trans Visibility Day is more about empowerment and transgender people loving and caring for themselves than it is about just being visible.
How do people celebrate Trans Visibility Day?
It’s a day that’s probably more complicated than most understand. Visibility is important to try and change people’s hearts and minds. If you don’t know about a particular group, it’s easy to paint them as the monster under the bed.
It carries with it risk. No trans person owes visibility. If you can and it would be safe for you, that’s great. If not, we understand. Some people feel safe. Some may treat it as a coming out day. Others may be more visible in places where they might not go all the time. We tend not to travel in groups, so I think it’s up to the individual. There might be some groups that get together at the state legislature. You might protest. Some cities might offer a proclamation.
What message does Trans Visibility Day send to those outside the transgender and LGBTQ+ communities?
We’re out there and we’re not going away and we’re going to keep fighting against inequality. Because I can’t imagine walking into a grocery store and seeing a mother with a child and going over and interfering with the family’s healthcare decisions with the child that are made between the doctors and the parents and the child. I can’t imagine the kind of spirit it would take to say, “No, you can’t do that with your child,” or “You have to do this with your child.”
On a national scale, how has the trans experience changed over the years?
I grew up with half the resources (young trans people) have now. I grew up without even the term transgender. There was nothing on TV that talked about transgender issues, for sure. And no movies and no books I could access.
What advice do you have for trans youth?
The advice that I would give kids now is to, as much as is humanly possible, know that it gets better. Stay with it, never give up, don’t quit, participate in the process, be who you’re supposed to be. Transgender people are beautiful. They experience parts of life that I think most people never even contemplate.
Sara Fairly-Luna
Fairly-Luna, 35, is the board chair for LGBTQ Saves, a Fort Worth-based nonprofit focused on creating a safe community of support for LGBTQ+ youth. The group works with about 200 LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 12-24; Fairly-Luna estimated about 70% of those are trans youth. Fairly-Luna, who is cis-gendered, spoke about her experience as a queer Texan working with trans youth.
Why is Trans Visibility Day important?
Trans Visibility Day is, I mean, obviously extraordinarily important right now in this moment of history. When you’re living in a state or a country that just continues to say that you don’t matter or that you’re wrong for just existing as you are, this day is really meant to celebrate all of our trans siblings, exactly as they are. And to make sure that we don’t have to read one more name on Trans Remembrance Day in November.
Why is Trans Visibility Day important in this moment in history, as you said?
Our state legislature in Texas is really targeting our trans community and trying to dismantle a lot of the progress our community has made. But I mean, this is not new. This is definitely not new, this attack on our trans community. Trans women of color are disproportionately killed, disproportionately murdered by police, by civilians. And so even though there’s so many now formal bills and legislature and topics focused on the trans community, our trans community has always been vulnerable. I think it’s just now under a microscope, and it’s being politicized and targeted in a way that heightens the fear.
How does LGBTQ+ Saves support trans youth?
The primary reason our organization really exists is to provide safe and brave spaces for LGBTQ+ youth to just exist as they are. We have virtual happy hours for parents to join. We have Discord for youth to join in and chat with one another. We are partnering with FInn’s Place for a Trans Visibility Day Celebration.
We like to bring parents along. But in the event that there are not parents who are affirming, we still want our youth to be surrounded in community with folks that are going to affirm who they are.
What impact does hateful rhetoric have for the LGBTQ+ community?
We were at Tulips on Monday night to really celebrate the drag show, and so many of us there were nervous because we were like, OK, this is a prime opportunity for violence. You see people opening fire at queer spaces and so I think that the legality piece is a big one, but then the social stress and the social fear. It’s so heightened for our trans community, and then particularly trans youth. If they don’t have gender-affirming parents or guardians in their life, that could be even more damaging.
What are some misconception about the trans community?
And I think one of the largest misconceptions is that legislators are those in power, know how to make decisions on behalf of other people. With most things, if you don’t have any contact with anyone who is directly impacted, you don’t know enough to offer an opinion.
What can allies do to support the trans community?
Be informed about what laws are being pushed at the state level but also being informed when it comes to voting in local elections. Showing up at community events, you know, this Friday at Finn’s.
Rev. Katie Hays
Rev. Katie Hays is the founder, pastor and lead evangelist of Galileo Church in Fort Worth. Hays said she founded the church in 2013 as an inclusive, LGBTQ+ affirming place of worship. While cis-gendered, Hays has trans members of her congregation and works to advance the equality of the transgender community in Fort Worth and Texas as a whole.
How would you define Trans Visibility Day?
It’s a chance to just recognize that among their neighbors, among their colleagues at work, among their kids at school, there are a lot of Texans who don’t find themselves on the gender binary they were defined by at birth. These people are just people. They want to graduate, get a job, get a degree, have a family, adopt a puppy.
There has been a little bit of push back from trans folks who say it’s unfair to make themselves visible on Trans Day of Visibility, especially since it’s not exactly safe to be out in our current climate. These people are being incredibly courageous and in a way incredibly gracious to let us into this private part of their lives.
How does your congregation celebrate Trans Visibility Day?
We have a couple of angles on that this year.
Christian Church Disciples of Christ is holding a Trans Day of Visibility vigil online, and we’re hosting an hour of the vigil. I think it is very interesting to call it a “vigil” because it’s taking into account the reality of transgender and gender diverse folks who are not feeling very safe right now. A vigil is a way to pray for their safety, which is under threat everywhere across the nation, especially here in Texas.
Finn’s Place is holding a Trans Visibility Day party, a party for trans folks and their families to celebrate their own existence and experience trans joy, which is its own form of resistance in this climate of hatred and threats.
This community center is a beautiful act of hope and sort of insistent presence and courage to say we don’t always want to be on defense, fighting and having to show courage all the time. So Finn’s Place has become that place for a lot of people. And I’m not just talking about the people who sit in the pews at my church.
As an ally and minister to the transgender community, what impact do you hope Trans Visibility Day has?
It’s really hard to celebrate when you feel so vulnerable and so unwanted by so many of your neighbors. It’s a weighty burden that nobody should have to bear. I really wish that people could feel enough compassion and maturity in their own hearts to just leave folks alone. Leave families alone. People are doing the best they can to live their own lives. I would say that, theologically, to live the lives God gave them. We should respect people enough to believe them when they tell us who they are.
