In keeping with the culture and politics of Trans(forming) - we challenge the idea and concept of a Trans Day of Visibility!

We invite those to use this 'day' and time to read some thought provoking concepts from some of our major Trans Thought Leaders and Activist in books and pieces like:

Trap Door: https://www.vice.com/en/article/j5vvex/exploring-the-paradox-of-trans-visibility-trap-door?fbclid=IwAR1aK4ifvVAX6qpCwh-dC_0ay9RFp89juPoOj1yZqzviYvxoVEPO8Mfjxpc

With permission we have used the words from Reina Gossett adopted from her wonderful speech at the 2015 Anti-Violence Conference. Thank you!

Trans Day of Visibility Needs Critical Thinking Lens

We can all use this day of visibility as a call for all of us to open our eyes and see each other.

To open our minds and hearts to care more about each other - even within communities.

To be visiable about our own need to heal.

To be visiable about the internal work we commit to.

We are coming together, here and now, at a moment of increased visibility for trans* people, in pop culture and in the gaze of the state. But at the same time, as we so intimately know, we are witnessing some of the highest rates of violence against our communities ever documented.

So, in this moment of violence and visibility, I feel it’s urgent to think about what we risk losing when the state, and pop culture, seem to be inviting us in. What do we open ourselves, and our communities, up to when we seek out visibility?In keeping with the culture and politics of Trans(forming) - we challenge the idea and concept of a Trans Day of Visibility!

So often, visibility uses the lens of respectability to determine who, even in the most vulnerable communities, should be seen and heard. I believe that, through the filter of visibility, those of us most at risk to state violence, become even more vulnerable to that violence.

I love that I'm a part of a types of sociability, and study, and love that is supported by never being what the state, or the mainstream white gay rights movement, saw as normal. The type that pushes against other trans people and demand that the room and definitions be expanded to include us, again. That we've always been here.

I wish we were sitting around together, hashing out our ideas about this world we’ve got to deal with. I mean making meaning of the world, together. Sharing how we're alike, how we differ and we all want the same things at the end of the day. How we don't all have to post selfie and take pictures and do this because somebody said we should be SEEN. There are so many ways to revolution to liberation and we need all of us. So many of us are left outside when we decide on this ONE way and this ONE way has been going on for at least the last decade and the onslaught of the web and now social media. I applaud those who choose that path.

So, I’ll close by saying that I believe this moment invites all of us not just to think about what we want to dismantle and organize against, but also what we want to defend: the ways we laugh, and love, and study together. The ways we come together to make meaning.

There is more than ONE WAY!