Since 2009, March 31 has marked Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), a day celebrating the trans community’s resilience and contributions to history and society.
Sixteen years after its inception, trans advocates find TDOV to be even more crucial – albeit difficult – than ever before, with near-constant attacks leveraged against the trans community coming federally and locally since inauguration day.
“On one end, you want to be visible, you want to be vocal, but then you also have to consider your safety,” Alex Santiago, the Chief Operating Officer of Destination Tomorrow, told Georgia Voice. “So being an advocate during these times is really scary… but I think it’s critical that we stay visible, because trans people are being pushed out of public spaces, erased from health care and education, used as political scapegoats. We just need to assert our presence and remind the world that trans people aren’t going anywhere.”
Destination Tomorrow is a Black trans-led LGBTQ+ center with offices in Atlanta, New York, and D.C. The organization offers support groups, HIV testing, housing, and other assistance to LGBTQ+ people. To commemorate TDOV in 2023, Destination Tomorrow offered a free name change and gender marker change clinic with Atlanta Legal Aid – an event so popular, they’ve continued to offer it monthly ever since.
While health care and housing access have always been crucial needs for the trans community, Santiago says that the need for health care assistance has significantly grown with the new administration as executive orders and legislation are rolled out limiting access to gender-affirming care.
This highlights the true necessity for TDOV: every attack on trans health care and youth is an attempt to erase and silence the trans community, and visibility plays a critical role not only in affirming trans people that they’re not alone, but educating non-trans people, as well.
“There’s more allies available to us, just statistically,” Kieran Helbling, the co-founder of Trans Joy, told Georgia Voice.
Trans Joy is an Atlanta-based organization committed to building a robust, empowered, joyful, and self-compassionate community for trans people. Along with providing financial assistance to the trans community – Helbling and his co-founder Adam Kaylor, gave away $17,000 in grants last year, and this year they have committed to giving away a free haircut with a trans stylist and an Ulta Beauty gift card once a month to affirm trans people’s self-expression – and organizing free community events, they also produce a podcast, the Trans Joycast, which aims at spreading accurate information about the trans community and, as the name suggests, joy.
For Trans Joy, visibility is crucial for both affirming the trans community and combatting the litany of misinformation spread by non-trans people.
“Visibility is first and foremost for us at Trans Joy,” Kaylor said. “It’s core to who we are and why we’re here, because we recognize the power in knowing each other.”
“Most folks who have something sh*tty to say about trans folks don’t know any of us,” Helbling added. “I want my community to know that they can show up anywhere with their shoulders back and head held high because they’ve got the support of their community.”
Trans Joy will be taking this philosophy to the Atlanta Beltline on March 29 in honor of TDOV with a free trans talk table from 1 to 4 p.m., where anyone who would like to can come talk and ask questions about transness, and the trans community who feel safe enough to do so can celebrate and commune together in public. Atlanta Freedom Bands will join the festivities and provide entertainment.
On TDOV, Destination Tomorrow will participate the Deeper Than Visibility Summit: How We Talk About Us at Atlanta City Hall from noon to 3pm. Trans leaders, policymakers, organizers, and community members will discuss investing in Black trans leadership, the need for policy change, collective action, and more. Register for the event and the after party here.
“The attacks on our community are designed to isolate and disempower us,” Santiago said, “but we just let people know we have to stick together, because we’re definitely stronger together.”
To learn more about Destination Tomorrow, visit destinationtomorrow.org. To learn more about Trans Joy, visit trans-joy.com.
