Notice of Cybersecurity Incident

Derek Trans Day of Visibility

Trans­gen­der Day of Vis­i­bil­i­ty: What Being Vis­i­ble Means to Me

By Derek Sul­li­van, CCPRD Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion Services 

Today is Inter­na­tion­al Trans­gen­der Day of Vis­i­bil­i­ty, an annu­al event ded­i­cat­ed to cel­e­brat­ing and acknowl­edg­ing trans* indi­vid­u­als around the world while also rais­ing aware­ness of the dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence the com­mu­ni­ty faces. While we may be think­ing, I don’t know any­body who’s trans­gen­der”, take into con­sid­er­a­tion that we don’t know the sto­ries of each and every stranger that we inter­act with. In our het­ero­nor­ma­tive and bina­ry-enforced soci­ety, we assume that every face we meet is cis­gen­der. How­ev­er, the HRC Foun­da­tion released this video to dis­pel those myths, not­ing that there are more than 2 mil­lion trans­gen­der peo­ple in the Unit­ed States alone. The trans* com­mu­ni­ty has been here the whole time, exist­ing in our fam­i­lies, friend groups, neigh­bor­hoods, and com­mu­ni­ties. We have all met a trans­gen­der per­son, we just might not have known.

Still think you’ve nev­er met a trans* per­son? Then let me intro­duce myself: Hi, I’m Derek and I use he/​him/​his pro­nouns! I iden­ti­fy as a trans­gen­der man, and I am com­mit­ted to being a vis­i­ble mem­ber of my com­mu­ni­ty in the social spaces that I occu­py. I came out as trans* after high school and took going away to col­lege as my gold­en tick­et” to explor­ing my gen­der iden­ti­ty. In the begin­ning, I felt very vul­ner­a­ble, as if there was a spot­light on me; my gen­der was con­stant­ly called into ques­tion. Being pre-testos­terone and only 18, I had to stay as hid­den as I could. The fact that the world did not see me as I saw myself kept my authen­tic self locked away in fear of being any more of a tar­get than I already was.

I nev­er thought I would get to the point where I am now, and I could not have done it with­out the sup­port of my com­mu­ni­ty. It wasn’t until I was four years into my phys­i­cal tran­si­tion that I felt safe dis­clos­ing my trans* iden­ti­ty to oth­ers. And it is only because of my priv­i­lege that I am able to be vis­i­ble. As I walk the world today, I have the priv­i­lege of pass­ing” in our soci­ety. This means that I am per­ceived by oth­ers as a cis­gen­der man. As a man in our soci­ety, I have a mul­ti­tude of priv­i­leges in that iden­ti­ty alone, in addi­tion to hav­ing white priv­i­lege. Being seen by oth­ers as a white cis’ man, I imme­di­ate­ly have social sta­tus and am treat­ed with that respect in the major­i­ty of situations.

I am one of the lucky ones. A major­i­ty of my trans* sib­lings still live their lives in fear. They still tuck them­selves away and make them­selves small because the world is not safe for them. It’s eas­i­er to be invis­i­ble than to fight an end­less bat­tle just to be seen. I’ve been there, and that is why I choose to be vis­i­ble for those who can­not. It’s impor­tant that I put myself out there to advo­cate for my com­mu­ni­ty and fight for our rights, respect, and equality.

The trans­gen­der com­mu­ni­ty is fac­ing an epi­dem­ic of hate crimes; the most vul­ner­a­ble of iden­ti­ties being black trans­gen­der women, who face a dead­ly mix of sex­ism, racism, and trans­pho­bia. I refuse to stay silent when my com­mu­ni­ty is being tar­get­ed with hatred and vio­lence. To me, being vis­i­ble means being open about gen­der iden­ti­ty. It means edu­cat­ing those who have any mis­con­cep­tions or ques­tions. It means stand­ing up for my com­mu­ni­ty when oth­ers try to tear us down. I refuse to let fear silence me and keep me from being my true authen­tic self. We are trans, and we are beautiful.

Look­ing for resources? Check out our LGBTQ+ Cen­ter in Schaum­burg, Illi­nois!


Sources:

Kozuch, E. (2020, March 31). HRC hon­ors Inter­na­tion­al Trans­gen­der day of vis­i­bil­i­ty. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://​www​.hrc​.org/​n​e​w​s​/​h​u​m​a​n​-​r​i​g​h​t​s​-​c​a​m​p​a​i​g​n​-​h​o​n​o​r​s​-​i​n​t​e​r​n​a​t​i​o​n​a​l​-​t​r​a​n​s​g​e​n​d​e​r​-​d​a​y​-​o​f​-​v​i​s​i​b​ility

Scheinpflug, J. (n.d.). #Hire­Trans Chica­go. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from http://​hire​tran​schica​go​.com/


Previous Article Next Article
You're Not Alone

10%
of chil­dren in the U.S. strug­gle with seri­ous chal­lenges to their emo­tion­al and men­tal health.

Get Involved

How You Can Help

Keep up to date with KYC!

Get the latest Kenneth Young Center news and insights emailed to you each month. Just complete the form below to subscribe.