Trans Day of Visibility: Listen to Trans Voices
“I think I have a daily relationship with a sense of inadequacy. I've written about this in the past, but when you are a non-binary person in this country at this time, there's an imposter syndrome for being alive, because people don't think that we should exist. And so every day I have to remind myself they're wrong, because I'm breathing, they're wrong because I'm speaking. And so I have to remind myself not only am I enough, but the very system that has and weaponizes a criteria that would rather disappear me, that's not a system that will ever evaluate me again.”
Alok Vaid Menon [They/Them], Writer and Performance Artist.
The Category is: A Decline of Rights
Trans Day of Visibility takes place every 31st March. The day signifies a time for celebrating trans and non-binary people and raises awareness of discrimination faced by people in these communities worldwide.
In 2023 alone gender non-conforming people will have faced a global decline in their rights, from transphobic laws being implemented across the U.S. to the scapegoating of the trans community in the UK.
As we witness the rise in fascism on an international level, we’re also witnessing the rise of violence towards trans people - whether it’s within the legislation, healthcare, the criminal justice system and/or in the media. All spheres of our society seem to be targeting trans communities, and this not only has a detrimental impact on trans and non-binary people but also on the wider community.
Over 120 bills restricting LGBTQIA+ rights have been introduced in the U.S. in 2023. The bills introduced mainly target trans youth and are focused on healthcare access, school and education, free speech and expression, access to accurate IDs, weakening civil rights laws, public accommodations and restrictions on marriage. All these bills point to one goal - the erasure of trans people. One bill makes this glaringly obvious and includes proposed amendments to define transgender people out of existence.
In 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] tracked a record-breaking 278 bills targeting LGBTQ people, largely focused on transgender youth. Twenty became law, including 17 aimed at restricting the rights of transgender student-athletes.
The rise in anti-trans sentiment is being felt across the pond and in the UK. Activists, social commentators, educators and lawyers have expressed concern with how British politicians in tandem with the media distract from their political misdeeds by scapegoating the trans community.
Anti-trans politicians are no longer hiding their transphobic views behind closed doors. In a recent Instagram post Munroe Bergdorf, Activist, Writer and Model, spoke to this by writing:
“Anti-trans politicians have finally started to say the quiet part out loud. The part that the trans community has been rallying against and trying to warn cisgender society about for the good part of a decade. This is more than ‘just a culture war’; for far too many who wield significant societal power, this is a literal war on transgender people.”
Munroe Bergdorf, Activist, Model, Writer and TV Presenter
The Category is Stats, Stats and Stats!
Statistics highlighted in Stonewall’s LGBT in Britain: Trans Report in 2018 and the UK Census of 2021 demonstrate that the trans community needs allyship and co-conspirators now more than ever. This is due to the fact that the statistics gathered in various reports all say the same thing - that the quality of life for gender non-conforming has been on the decline since 2017.
In the UK’s 2021 census, 262,000 people identified as a different gender to the one they were assigned at birth in England and Wales.
According to Stonewall’s LGBT in Britain: Trans Report in 2018:
Two in five trans people [41%] and three in ten non-binary people [31%] were subjected to a hate crime or incident as a result of their gender identity.
One in eight trans employees [12%] has been physically attacked by colleagues or customers whilst at work.
Two in five trans people [40%] adjust how they dress because they fear discrimination or harassment. This number increases significantly to half of non-binary people [52%].
When it comes to documenting the lives lost due to transphobic violence, the UK is lacking.
This may be due to the fact that it’s difficult to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate in the UK, which allows trans people to change their name and the sex that they were assigned at birth on paper. However, the Gender Recognition Certificate fails to adequately support gender non-conforming people as a whole. There is no provision for recognising non-binary people as non-binary on any legal documentation or on medical records. This means that if a trans person dies before obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate, they will often be misgendered and deadnamed.
In addition to this, there are still 14 countries where it’s illegal to be transgender. In countries like this tracking violence against trans people can be extremely challenging. Organisations like the Human Rights Campaign have been tracking violence against non-gender conforming people in the U.S. In 2021, they tracked a record number of violent fatal incidents against transgender and gender non-conforming people — with 50 fatalities tracked. In 2022, they tracked 38 fatal incidents, and so far 6 have been recorded in 2023.
The IGLA-Europe, an independent, international non-governmental umbrella organisation uniting over 700 organisations from 45 countries across Europe and Asia, gathers statistics on LGBTQIA+ rights across Europe and Asia. They are also tracking the decline of trans rights in the UK.
In their most recent report, it shows that:
According to the UK Home Office, transphobic hate crimes have increased by 56% in England and Wales. This marks the starkest annual increase since 2012. The report attributes the rise in transphobic hate crimes in part to anti-trans media reporting. Galop’s Hate Crime report in 2022 echoes this view.
In Northern Ireland, more hate incidents were recorded across each hate motivation strand when compared with the previous twelve months (except for faith or religion incidents) with a 24% increase in transphobic incidents. The Rainbow Project in 2021, found that 51% of those who had experienced a hate crime had not reported it to the Police Services of Northern Ireland [PSNI]. The reason frequently cited was that respondents were not confident that their complaints would be taken seriously. Some were unaware that the PSNI could take action and were fearful of repercussions.
Galop’s Hate Crime report in 2022 also included a section on ‘Experiences of Abuse from Family Members’, highlighting that 29% of LGBT+ people have experienced abuse from family members.
60% attributed this to them being LGBT+.
63% of the victims were under 18 when they first faced violence at home.
Another report by Galop shared that support services for LGBT+ victims are rare and insufficient.
In Galop’s report on ‘LGBT+ People and Sexual Violence’ more than half of respondents thought that the acts of violence were inflicted upon them because they were LGBT+ and most stated detrimental consequences on their mental health.
The Category is: Trans Liberation
“When you’re talking about trans liberation, what that means as opposed to just trans equality or trans rights, is arguing for the dismantling of systems which marginalise trans people…And of course, a lot of those systems are things that marginalise lots of people who aren’t trans as well – whether that be in terms of medical inequality, housing, or lack of social welfare,”
Shon Faye, Journalist, Writer and Presenter
The decline of trans rights will be a detriment to all that may not be noticed right now but will become more apparent in the following years. As Shon Faye says, trans liberation involves dismantling systems which seek to marginalise trans people; the very same system seeks to marginalise the wider community who don’t necessarily identify as trans or LGBTQIA+.
When looking at the state of affairs in the UK, our quality of life has declined dramatically. Swathes of industries are on strike and social commentators have predicted that we are on the brink of having a general strike. The cost of living crisis has had a detrimental impact on communities experiencing marginalisation, as 750 youth centres have closed and Council funding for refuges for survivors of domestic violence has been axed by £7 million since 2010/2011. This is mainly due to the Government's policy of austerity - yet the media and British politicians have chosen to scapegoat a community which are facing the brunt of many of these policies.
Their current scapegoating does not reflect wider public opinion. In fact, data from NatCen's British Social Attitudes [BSA] survey suggests that public attitudes to transgender people are broadly positive. The scapegoating of a community experiencing marginalisation is common practice, especially when the goal is to distract the public from the current government's failures.
From the voices of trans and non-binary people here are some of the things we can do to support them:
When it comes to trans rights, listen to trans people.
Donate to fundraisers supporting trans people, whether it’s top surgery funds or supporting essential costs.
Donate to trans-led organisations.
Sign petitions advocating for trans rights when they come your way.
Stand up against transphobia - be vocal.
Trans liberation is intertwined with the liberation of all communities experiencing marginalisation.
The Category is: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is
“Allies worldwide are essential in the progression of any social cause but especially in the case of trans rights because there are so few trans people in the world. I've heard a few different numbers, but it's predicted we make up about 1% of the global population, so if we really want to see a change in attitude or a change in legislation, we need allies on our side to amplify our voices and put up a united front with us.”
Charlie Craggs, Activist and Writer
Visibility is important in the fight towards trans liberation, but visibility has also proven to be a double-edged sword. This is why it’s important that we start thinking beyond visibility. As visibility may increase acceptance but does not necessarily establish safety. This has been evidenced most recently with Burberry’s “trans-inclusive” campaign with Campbell King.
Organisations looking to support the trans community need to develop policies that are rooted in inclusion. This goes beyond including pronouns in your email footers or Zoom names. This means looking at the stats that most negatively impact trans people and developing policies which seek to tackle this.
Organisations can:
Remove barriers to job applications. Including:
Specifying gender, sexuality, name and the requirement for higher-level qualifications like University degrees
Organise workshops which seek to improve understanding of transgender and non-binary issues:
Mermaids have a CPD [Continuous Personal Development] accredited suite of training modules for professionals seeking a better understanding of gender issues.
Advertise the job with the support of trans-led organisations, groups and platforms.
The Category is: Trans People Are Incredible
“We have to remain visible. They have to see us; they have to know that we’re not going [nowhere], that we’ve been here ever since God made man and woman, and they have to get over it. I don’t need their permission to exist; I exist in spite of them. I want you to train and teach and love on and create families within my community and gender non-conforming people so that we can understand that we have a culture, we have a history, we have a reason to be here. We have a purpose. We’re entitled to be loved, and seek happiness, and share that with the people that we care about.”
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Activist and Community Leader
As Major Griffin-Gracy says, trans people and gender non-conforming people have been here since the beginning of time and don’t need permission to exist. The rollback of trans rights seeks to erase trans people by denying them the right to housing, healthcare, justice and other social and basic needs.
Trans people have paved the way for many of the rights that the wider public is afforded today. Especially in regard to the LGBTQIA+ community. After all, the first Stonewall riot which inspired an international LGBTQIA+ movement, may not have happened had it not been for Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two racialised trans women.
Trans people inspire us every day by just existing in a world that routinely seeks to vilify them. We owe them the world. They’ve set the blueprint for what it means to be fearless and unapologetically yourself no matter the consequence.
So today and every day celebrate the trans community, amplify their voice and fight alongside them when you’re called to do so. At Spark Insights we are co-conspirators in the fight for trans rights and will show up beyond this day of visibility.
Want to learn more? Read our LGBT+ History Month: An A-Z Guide with more resources by trans voices.
Zoe Daniels, They/Them, [Brand and Engagement Lead, Spark Insights] has developed this resource to celebrate trans and non-binary people but also to raise awareness of discrimination faced by the community and what you can do to provide meaningful support. This is a space not just for allies looking to learn but for trans people who are in need of recognition, acceptance, celebration and love.