TRANS WEEK OF VISIBILITY & ACTION: March 25-31, 2023
Action in defense of trans lives now is an essential part of all movements for justice. Join us this week and always.
The time for mass mobilization in defense of trans lives is now. Trans youth are under attack in states across the country. As efforts to criminalize trans bodies escalate, so must our resistance.
What’s going on?
From March 25-March 31 we are launching a digital mobilization campaign to build power and support for trans young people and the organizers and communities fighting alongside them. More than 400 bills have been introduced across the country attacking trans youth — from threatening to criminalize health care to investigating families for affirming their children to banning trans youth from school activities, these bills represent a threat to trans survival.
Visibility alone won’t save us, take action!
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Learn
There are over 400 bills pending in state legislatures across the United States that would ban health care for trans minors, ban trans women and girls from sports, ban trans people from restrooms, and ban schools and school staff from educating about history.
Why are
these bills dangerous?
These bills are just one part of a fascist global campaign to silence, erase, and harm trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people. They are not about protecting women or children, but about expanding state power and control and limiting bodily autonomy and self-determination.
Action in defense of trans lives now is an essential part of all movements for justice.
Join us this week and always.
Act now
Opponents of trans justice and trans survival are fixated on us and we need our allies and accomplices to mobilize with us.
This week we’ll be diving deep on this national strategy against the trans community.
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TRANS EXPRESSION IS POWER
DRAG BANS police transness, gender variance, and queer expression. They restrict and, often, criminalize drag performance and other types of performances by trans people including balls, comedy shows, concerts, pageants, and plays.
WHY IS DRAG A BATTLEGROUND?
From Mary Jones in the early 1800s to Helen Hulick in the 1930s, people wearing clothing that didn’t fit standards around gender were criminalized. Conservative have just reignited a long history of gender policing. They are also conflating drag, all gender nonconformity and trans experience.
All along the way, though, figures like Sir Lady Java who successfully protested against cross-dressing laws in the 1960s, our communities have demanded respect and the right to freely express themselves. Conservatives can’t take the flyness of trans and gender nonconforming people.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
✸ DEMAND lawmakers VOTE NO on drag bans.
✸ EDUCATE family, friends, and communities on the policing of queer expression and spaces.
✸ ELEVATE local drag events, including story hours, and hire performers. And tip, hunny!
SUPPORT
☻ Black Trans Femmes in the Arts
☻ Black Transcendance
☻ Comfrey Films -
TRANS HEALTH IS POWER
HEALTH CARE BANS police access to gender-affirming health care for trans folks, especially youth. They restrict bodily autonomy for everyone and strengthen attacks on abortion and contraception.
This year, at least 27 states have introduced almost 100 healthcare bans targeting trans people. States like OK, TX, FL and MO have introduced multiple bills attempting to ban and restrict health care for trans people of all ages. FL has gone so far as to introduce a bill that could remove children from homes either where cis parents are affirming their trans children or where trans parents have undergone any medical transition.
WHAT IS GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE?
Any treatment that affirms a person’s gender identity. For trans people, it may include access to hormone therapy and surgery. But gender-affirming care also includes things like therapy and other non-medical support.. Every major U.S. medical association supports this care, and it is life-saving to many trans people.
Cis people are the largest consumers of gender-affirming care as many opt for hormonal therapy and common cosmetic procedures for gender affirmation. The double-standard is that this care is normalized for cis folks and criminalized for trans folks.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
✸ DEMAND lawmakers to VOTE NO on healthcare bans.
✸ EDUCATE family, friends, and circles on the importance of gender-affirming care.
✸ ELEVATE gender-affirming care funds and crowd shares.
SUPPORT
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TRANS BRILLIANCE IS POWER
CURRICULUM BANS restrict education about the history, liberation movements, and systemic oppression of communities on the margins, particularly regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation.
FORCED OUTING LAWS force school staff and other government officials to disclose a young person’s actual or perceived or questioning LGBTQ+ identity to parents and guardians possibly opening them up to harm and rejection.
Nearly half of U.S. states have introduced these types of bills this year.
WHY IS EDUCATION A BATTLEGROUND?
Controlling information access is a centerpiece of fascist governments. It limits resistance and ensures that a less informed general public identifies with and maintains systems of oppression.
Many of these bills are framed as “parental rights” measures but don’t account for two critical points: 1) many parents want their children to develop empathy through learning about diverse experiences and 2) youth have agency and autonomy and deserve to learn as much about diverse experiences as possible.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
✸ DEMAND lawmakers to VOTE NO on curriculum bans and forced outing laws.
✸ EDUCATE family, friends, and circles on the experiences of LGBTQ+ folks and our history.
✸ ELEVATE initiatives and organizations that center trans culture, history, and voices.
SUPPORT
☻ The Transgender Cultural District
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TRANS EXISTENCE IS POWER
BATHROOM BANS restrict trans and gender nonconforming people’s access to restrooms, locker rooms and other public facilities. Ultimately, these bans restrict trans people’s presence in public life and affect the ability of trans people to go to school, work, hospitals, and other essential parts of daily living.
In 2023, states have proposed new restrictions on restroom use by trans people including criminal prohibitions on trans adults using restrooms. OK and AL already passed laws banning trans students from using restrooms that align with their gender identity.
WHY ARE BATHROOMS A BATTLEGROUND?
Barring trans people from the restroom is a way to ban trans people from public life and to situate trans bodies as a threat to others, especially women and children.
Public restrooms have been a site of political violence throughout U.S. history, particularly through anti-Black legal and extralegal segregation regimes, anti-homelessness ordinances and laws, ableist physical and legal structures excluding disabled people from public space, and laws presuming women were the sole caretakers of children and enforced gender-based exclusion in the workplace.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
✸ DEMAND lawmakers to VOTE NO on bathroom bans.
✸ EDUCATE family, friends, and circles on the experiences of LGBTQ+ folks and our history.
✸ ELEVATE initiatives and organizations that center keeping trans people safe.
SUPPORT
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TRANS STRENGTH IS POWER
SPORTS BANS restrict trans youth from building social skills, increasing self-esteem, and enjoying their passions. They also increase rates of depression and suicide.
In the last three years, conservative politicians in 18 states banned trans girls and women from sports. Some target children as young as age 5. In 2023, more states are following suit and even introducing “women’s bills of rights” that exclude trans people from legal protections. Congress is also trying to amend the Civil Rights Act to add in discriminatory language that would nationally ban trans women and girls from sports.
WHY ARE SPORTS A BATTLEGROUND?
For at least a century, sports have been a site to police bodies. At the elite level, “sex testing” was used to target women, specifically who were Black, of color, and/or intersex, who did not meet norms of white femininity.
Many sports bans are enforced by defining women by a reductive definition limited to chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive anatomy. These laws open the door to intrusive examinations into the bodies of all athletes in women’s sports and do nothing to rectify the real inequities caused by sex discrimination in athletics.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
✸ DEMAND lawmakers VOTE NO on anti-trans sports legislation.
✸ EDUCATE family, friends, and circles on the history of sex testing in sports.
✸ ELEVATE initiatives and organizations that center trans athletes and youth.
SUPPORT
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TRANS JOY IS POWER
TRANS JOY and POWER are the antidotes to anti-trans violence.
Trans Day of Visibility allows us to embrace ourselves defiantly and unapologetically. Our joy, celebration, and love provides a window into a world where everyone is less crushed by expectations.
People have been transcending gender norms and demanding dignity for generations. Youth and others on the margins need to know that they deserve their spot on this earth. And we must plant seeds for future generations of queer and trans people to know their power.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
✸ DEMAND lawmakers to draft legislation that defends, empowers, and protects trans people, especially youth.
✸ EDUCATE family, friends, colleagues, and communities on dismantling the gender binary and fighting for the liberation of all genders.
✸ ELEVATE initiatives and organizations led by and centering trans people.
✸ PROTEST anti-trans legislation, policies, and figures.
✸ TRANSFORM all the institutions that you enter: Organizations, schools, places of worship, workplaces, and more. Make sure that they are respecting the dignity of trans people.
✸ EMPOWER the youth to live authentically and not with shame about the qualities that make them beautifully unique.
SUPPORT
Contact your lawmakers
One of the most effective ways you can take action is by contacting your state senator and representative and tell them to vote NO on any anti-LGBTQ bills pending in your state.
Don’t know who your state reps are? That’s okay, most of us don’t. You can look them up based on your address here.
Confused about how government works? That is deliberate. Here is a primer on the branches of government.
It can be intimidating to contact your lawmaker if you never have before. We wrote some simple scripts you can use!
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Hi [lawmaker].
My name is [name] and I am one of your constituents. I know you are considering [bill number] that would ban trans kids from sports. All kids deserve to play alongside their peers. This type of legislation is harmful and stigmatizes an already vulnerable group of young people. As your constituent, I urge you to focus on real problems in our community and not on solutions in search of problems. Trans kids aren’t a threat but this type of legislation is. I urge you to vote NO on [bill number].
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Hi [lawmaker].
My name is [name] and I am one of your constituents. I know you are considering [bill number] that would ban cut trans youth off from life-affirming and at time, life-saving health care. The care that would be banned by [bill number] is health care supported by every major medical association in the United States. This type of legislation is harmful and stigmatizes an already vulnerable group of young people and risks serious, and even deadly, consequences. Additionally, this legislation is a dangerous intrusion into the parent-child and doctor-patient relationship. As your constituent, I urge you to focus on real problems in our community and not on solutions in search of problems. Leave the regulation and provision of this care to the doctors, parents and patients who are already managing it. I urge you to vote NO on [bill number].
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Hi [lawmaker].
My name is [name] and I am one of your constituents. I know you are considering [bill number] that would ban [trans kids/trans people] from restrooms. All kids deserve to go to school and have access to the same resources and facilities as their peers. If a child cannot use a restroom at school, they cannot go to school at all. This type of legislation is harmful and stigmatizes an already vulnerable group of young people. As your constituent, I urge you to focus on real problems in our community and not on solutions in search of problems. Trans people have been using the restroom for decades with no problems. Trans kids aren’t a threat but this type of legislation is. I urge you to vote NO on [bill number].
Donate
The impact of fighting these anti-trans bills and policies is felt all year by trans people, their families and loved ones. To build long-term and sustainable movements for trans justice, continue to support organizations around the country.
About
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In 2021, Chase Strangio (civil rights attorney) and Raquel Willis (activist and writer) launched Trans Week of Visibility and Action (TWOVA) to digitally mobilize the masses to confront the ever-increasing legislative attacks against the transgender community, specifically youth. The week enhanced the lead up to Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31) by inserting direct action and political education into the menu of ways that the community can show up for each other and allies can join in the fight for trans justice and liberation.
Strangio and Willis believe that visibility must be accompanied by action and power building for communities because so often increased visibility leads to more precarious material conditions for the most vulnerable members of our community. In the midst of aggressive attacks on trans youth in legislatures across the country accompanied by sweeping voter suppression measures, anti-abortion laws and attacks on historically accurately curricula, TWOVA aims to mobilize trans and allied communities towards local action and power building.
The larger Trans Week Project aims to build different weeks of action, connection, rest and resources over the course of the year to contend with the world around us and give us the tools to care for each other as we always have when the government and society at large fails us.
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A brief history of the criminalization of trans lives and trans resistance
Transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people have been consistently profiled and criminalized throughout United States history. In fact, many of our earliest records of gender nonconforming individuals are within the carceral system. From Mary Jones and Frances Thompson to Lucy Hicks Anderson and Billy Tipton, our people have always found ways to survive in a society that has never wanted us to exist.
In considering the seminal event of the Stonewall Riots, we must acknowledge that those who were most at risk (and most involved) during the riots were gender nonconforming and trans. We would not have the current cultural, social, and political landscape without the bravery of TGNC figures like Marsha P. Johnson, Zazu Nova, Miss Major, Sylvia Rivera, Pauli Murray and Storme Delarverie. Despite the fact that LGBTQ+ folks have largely been discriminated against for not adhering to cisheteronormative patriarchal standards, the fight for our community almost singularly came to center on the plight of those in similar-gender relationships.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to strike down bans on marriage equality (Obergefell v. Hodges), the backlash from conservatives swiftly and aggressively began to target trans people. The next year, state legislatures around the country began introducing bills to restrict the rights and survival opportunities of trans people, specifically youth in schools. Since then, the number and breadth of these bills has grown substantially—hitting a fever pitch last year.
In 2022, a majority of bills targeting trans people focus on: banning healthcare, restricting restroom access, criminalizing adults (including parents, school staff, and healthcare professionals) for supporting youth, and prohibiting inclusion of trans women and girls (and in some cases all trans people) in sports.
This escalation is not an end but a continuation of a long history of state control over gender-variant bodies that has been a central tool and organizing principle of white supremacy and patriarchal dominance. This is a fight for trans justice but it is a fight for justice more broadly.
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