The International Transgender Day of Visibility occurs annually on 31st March since 2009. This day of commemoration was first created by activist Rachel Crandall as part of a transgender visibility campaign. Crandall was frustrated that the best-known transgender-centric day was the International Transgender Day of Remembrance (20th November), which is a day of mourning for the trans* and larger queer community. The Transgender Day of Visibility, on the contrary, celebrates trans* people and achievements in addition to raising awareness about the discrimination faced worldwide by trans* people of every stripe. Since 2014, the Transgender Day of Visibility has been celebrated internationally, first spreading from the U.S.A. to Ireland and Scotland. Since 2015, trans* people have also participated online, posting selfies and stories to advocate for gender diversity acceptance. In 2021, American President Joe Biden officially recognized the day and urged all citizens to fight for discrimination-free environments.
TRANS RIGHTS IN INDIA
Since 2022, Indian trans* individuals and transgender rights advocates have marked the day with celebrations of the strength, resilience, and achievements of the trans* community in India.
Trans* rights are enshrined in law in the country, since the enactment of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act [TPA], 2019. However, this Act has met with justified criticism from advocates due to its dismissal of the rights of trans* individuals to self-identify, instead requiring the District Magistrate to certify gender to have it legally recorded. In addition, even this restricted law has hardly been implemented with any consistency: cursory attempts to employ transgender people in the railways have floundered due to a lack of government housing and community refusal to rent to trans* people.
The TPA is only the first step towards gender inclusivity in India; change needs to happen on an infrastructural and institutional level as well as the legal. Trans* individuals must be included and trans* needs accommodated in every sphere, to create the society the TPA conceptualizes, in which trans* people can access education, employment, healthcare, and housing without any discrimination, where they can occupy space in their households, in the public sphere and in electoral politics without fear. This is a far cry from the state of the nation now, with trans* people continuing to be marginalized, oppressed, and even killed because of their embattled gender identity.
In part, this is why the International Transgender Day of Visibility is so important: it allows trans* people to celebrate themselves and one another, coming together in solidarity across the world. It also serves to raise LGBTQ+ rights awareness, whether through events organized on the day or through the photos and stories posted on various social media platforms. In India, the prevailing image of trans* people is still that of an abject outsider capable of magical malevolence: a sort of bad fairy to appease at weddings and childbirths lest they wish harm upon the bride or newborn. Transgender visibility campaigns pave the way for real inclusion, by normalizing the presence of trans* people through multiple representations, by demonstrating to cishet people in effect that their neighbors and friends, employers and colleagues, are trans* and by extension that transgender people are people just like them.
HOUSING AND HEALTHCARE
One of the persistent problems faced by trans* people, including non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals, is that of housing. While the TPA offers a guarantee of non-discrimination, the law is not—as discussed—implemented with any regularity; it cannot contend with the entrenched transphobia present in every segment of Indian society. Most landlords flout the TPA with impunity, the handful that are even aware—much less wary—of the Act find other reasons to reject trans* applications for rental.
Transgender healthcare access is also an important issue, on many levels. Trans* people are often refused medical attention entirely. Others face a great deal of mockery during doctor’s appointments. Another source of concern is that gender identity becomes an obstacle to accurate treatment: for instance, transmen are refused gynecological treatment, or only offered it on the condition of misgendering; transwomen are similarly denied either medical care or their chosen gender. This can even extend to cardiac arrests and other potentially fatal conditions, which manifest differently in AFAB and AMAB bodies. Gender equality in healthcare is also necessary for intersex and nonbinary individuals, especially the former, who may be subjected in infancy to invasive surgical procedures designed to bring them into apparent conformity with gender norms.
MENSTRUAL EQUITY FOR ALL GENDERS
One of the major infrastructural necessities in menstrual healthcare is non-binary recognition, and—in extension—the recognition of non- and pre-op binary transmen as continuing to undergo menstruation. At a recent Spriha Society panel discussion, a non-binary panelist spoke about the reluctance masculine-presenting non-binary and trans* individuals feel in acknowledging menstruation, and how this further complicates questions of gynecological and reproductive healthcare for an already-marginalized group.
The language around menstruation and MHM is unavoidably gender-essentialist, and can trigger dysphoria in trans* people: much of it concerns womanhood and womanliness, with menarche treated as the doorway into not simply puberty—a simple biological process—but womanhood as a socio-cultural identity. In order to promote inclusivity in menstrual—and other—healthcare, we need to normalize gender-neutral language in medical discourse and practice. On an infrastructural level, we need to destigmatize the process of menstruation while simultaneously normalizing the presence of menstrual supplies in men’s restrooms. Gender-neutral restrooms are also a necessity for the visualization and normalization of trans* people in the public sphere, as well as for trans* health: withholding as the price for being out and about leads to urinary tract infections, while the maintenance of healthy routines requires isolation and absence from socio-political life.
TRANS VISIBILITIES and Transgender Day of Visibility
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act [TPA], 2019 ensures the legal inclusion of Indian trans* people in all spheres of life, and their protection from discrimination. The International Transgender Day of Visibility offers an opportunity for people to present their stories and experiences to the world without feeling isolated, in company with others like them worldwide. The primarily online nature of this day of celebration allows people to express themselves in ways that might not be safe in their everyday lives, and simultaneously to experience the immanent possibilities of trans* existence, to celebrate trans* resilience and achievements and joy.