The International Transgender Day of Visibility - 3.31.22
This is part of March’s “Our Public Memory” PIES Intellectual Practice on Politicizing Our Experience. If you missed this newsletter, read it here.
To some people, the International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) celebrates the modern values of tolerance and inclusion. But no. It really celebrates a resurgence of our Ancestors’ advanced cultural values, a return to greater societal health, and the sputtering but welcome end of Colonialism. We are getting there.
Acceptance of Trans and Gender Non-Binary people is a fine marker of how colonial or colonially conditioned a person is. Because before enslavement and the recent centuries’ imperial rampages, around the world traditional cultures were so advanced socially, that humanity embraced people of diverse genders as normal. Not only did some cultures give them revered roles in ceremony and ritual - but maybe more importantly Trans, GNB, and people with gender variants were just everyday valued members of our communities and families.
See it for yourself in popular resources as varied as the DigitalTransgenderArchive.net, Wikipedia and the PBS Map of Gender Diverse Cultures. These show that the proof of humanity’s wide and deep normalcy of the gender spectrum spans millennia and includes over 60 respected terms for our Trans, GNB and Alphabet Family members.
I love that the International Transgender Day of Visibility occurs in March, right after Black History Month. It seems like the perfect reminder that in traditional African cultures — before colonization and enslavement — gender diversity was accepted and appreciated. Just as western science has identified numerous gender-fluid animal species, even now in Botswana there are nearly a half dozen transgender lionesses with masculine manes and behavior contributing to the safety of their pride. African Ancestors knew. Our Ancestors: Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islanders, and European all knew.
Today, violence against Trans and GNB people is still far too common. I hope we begin seeing such violence as disrespect for their Ancestors and heritage. To me, acceptance of Transgender, Gender Non-Binary, and the entire LGBTQIA+, Alphabet Family becomes an act of beautiful rebellion and cultural reclamation. It makes all of us safer and more free.
It also means that the TDOV is for hailing veteran leaders and groundbreakers like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and elder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy of New York City’s Stonewall Uprising - and the iconic Mothers of Ballroom; communicators like the late Monica Roberts who founded the blog Transgriot.com.
TDOV is also for cheering on the vanguard of Trans, GNB leaders, activists and advocates. They create nurturing spaces for our progress as an inclusive society that returns to the human value of cherishing our rich gender diversity.
The Transgender Day of Visibility is all the richer for leaders like Jevon Martin, Executive Director / Founder of the Princess Jenae Place, which offers housing and healthcare; the team of Carter Brown and his wife Esperanza Brown of Texas, who founded the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition and the annual gathering/national conference/Fam reunion called BTAC. There’s also the YouTube icon Ms. Diamond Stylz, the Executive Director of Black TransWomen, Inc. Ms. Stylz also co-Hosts the unapologetic podcast , Marsha’s Plate with friends Mia Mix and Zahir. There are many leaders to hear from and this archive of unfiltered conversations gives you a great place to start.
Celebrate the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st! Celebrate that Humanity is a more fascinating and beautifully complex species than many realized - and that we are returning to that understanding.