As the end of March arrives, so does an annual tradition that has grown since its inception in 2009: Trans Day of Visibility (or TDOV). On March 31st, TDOV has come to be honored across the globe, as trans folks and the friends and family members who love them are invited to celebrate our transgender beloveds and uplift the gifts, accomplishments, and beauty they bring to our communities. But this year, arguably more than ever before, the climate for this celebration is particularly charged. The targeted persecution and attempt at the erasure of transgender people under the current Trump administration makes participation in a day like Trans Day of Visibility more than an act of celebration. It is also an act of resistance.
I myself am cisgender, but I come to this day with my own personal connections to the trans community. As an ordained Christian pastor, who was disillusioned with much of the church’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people, I began in my living room a new, independent, affirming spiritual community in Berkeley about ten years ago. Through the last decade of growing Haven Berkeley Faith Community, I've had the immense honor to walk with, pastor, baptize and bless a number of transgender folks, from children to adults in our community. I’ve seen up close the sincerity with which they’ve wrestled through their identities, the rejection they’ve experienced from others, particularly Christians, who couldn’t accept them with love and care, and the grace and power that can come in blessing and honoring their commitment to be their true authentic selves, created in the image of God.
All of this was prequel to becoming a parent of a gender expansive person myself. In recent years, my eldest child, a recent high school graduate, has made it increasingly clear that they identify as non-binary. Their pronouns are “they/them,” the very pronouns that became a slogan of fear and disgust in commercials for Trump’s second campaign. As this young adult has shared their journey of self-understanding with me, I have found myself once again amazed and extremely proud of their commitment to live into their authentic self, even as they risk rejection from some of the people they care about the most.
Our current administration seeks to make trans people not visible but invisible, eradicating their gender markers on documents, describing their authentic identities as deceitful, and stripping youth of their health care. It’s a classic authoritarian scapegoating move: targeting a relatively small minority for dehumanization, expulsion, and erasure in order to build and maintain power. But it only works if the majority population allows it to.
Pastor Leah Martens at a recent protest
So particularly this year, as a pastor, parent, and person who cares about every human being having the freedom to live into their authentic selves without fear, I am standing up for trans visibility. In a climate where visibility can bring vulnerability for trans individuals, it’s vital that caring communities of support for trans folks are also made visible on March 31st and beyond. All of us, regardless of our identity, have a role to play in that collective work. You don’t have to be trans to celebrate transgender visibility. You simply need to be willing to stand up in your corner of the community and say to folks across the gender spectrum, “I see you” with acceptance and care. And to all the gender expansive humans who read these words, whether you choose to be visible or not, let me say it now: Happy Transgender Day of Visibility. I see you. I see your humanity and your authenticity. I see your creativity and your power. I see your unique divine beauty. And I celebrate you.