Thousands of people demonstrated across the US on Friday as part of Transgender Day of Visibility in support of transgender rights and resilience amid what many denounced as an increasingly hostile environment.
Supporters of transgender rights gathered in state chambers across the country, at the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, and elsewhere to mark a day of unity first proclaimed more than a decade ago.
Singing, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” many in the state assembly in Montpelier, Vermont, wore pride flags or carried signs with messages like "yay gay" either "protect trans children".
Transgender youth as young as high school age stood in front of the Vermont crowd and recounted their struggles with their sexuality at a time when many across the country refuse to acknowledge them.
Charlie Draugh, a 17-year-old high school senior from Chisago, Minnesota, who attends a boarding school in Vermont, said he was angry that groups are trying to control his life and turn him into a political pawn.
“My life is not your debate,” Draugh said. “It is not a political issue. I’m not hurting anyone and I’m certainly not hurting myself.”
The demonstrations came as US Republican lawmakers have pursued hundreds of proposals this year to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, particularly those of transgender residents, including a ban on transgender girls participating in girls’ sports. , preventing transgender people from using bathrooms in accordance with their gender identities and requiring schools to name transgender students without names, requiring that they be identified by the names they were given at birth.
“We are not a new idea. We are not a new group,” said Penelope Torres, who traveled from Chicago to Washington, DC, where more than 1,000 people marched from Union Station to the reflecting pool. “We’ve always been here, we’ve always been part of the communities, and it’s time to start acknowledging that and giving ourselves the same protection.”
At least 11 states have enacted laws restricting or prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of the laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.
On Friday, President Joe Biden issued a statement in support of Transgender Day of Awareness. The president said transgender Americans deserve to be safe and supported in all communities. He denounced what he called hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender children and their families.
“Let me be clear: These attacks are un-American and must stop,” Biden’s statement read. “The bullying, discrimination, and political attacks facing trans children have exacerbated our national mental health crisis.”
Dana Kaplan, executive director of Outright Vermont, which helped sponsor Friday’s event at the Vermont Statehouse, said the level of hate directed at transgender youth is unprecedented.
"There are over 450 bills right now that specifically target the LGBTQ community and try to strip trans kids of their right to exist, when it comes down to it, their rights to play sports, their right to healthcare gender affirming"Kaplan said. "These are sort of the building blocks of what we all need to be able to live our lives and for trans youth, they have to take on much more than any youth should.".
International Transgender Day of Visibility was created in 2010 by an advocate who charged that most media coverage focused on violence against transgender people instead of the positive contributions to society made by transgender people, according to the advocacy group GLAAD. Advocates say it’s important to improve transgender visibility because many voters and lawmakers take actions that impact the lives of transgender people without knowing a transgender person.
Aspen Overy, 19, of Burlington, who came out as transgender a couple of years ago, said they attended the Montpelier rally to show their support for other trans people.
“I think there’s this myth of Vermont as this lovely, perfect little state,” Overy said. “But as many of the trans kids said today…those kids still often face so much hate and discrimination for being, for living their lives and that’s not okay.”
Overy, a student at the University of Vermont, said he hoped the rally would facilitate mutual support and community building among transgender people in Vermont.
“Plus, I think it also provides a place for these people to feel seen, which is so essential, and to feel welcomed,” Overy said.
