Trans* day of visibility – More than visibility
Today is International Trans* Day of Visibility (TdoV). The goal of today is to bring the accomplishments of Trans* people into the spotlight and combating cissexism. The theme of TdoV this year is #MoreThanVisibility meaning that this year we want to do more than ever to combat transphobia and discrimination.
Most if not all Trans* people have experienced transphobia in some form, whether through physical violence, cyber bullying or even legal attacks on their rights such as these anti-transgender bathroom discrimination laws currently being passed in certain parts of America. These things are mainly caused by ignorance. People are needlessly afraid of Trans* people, so much so that now after decades of sharing bathrooms with them, people have decided that they no longer want to because politicians have lied and claimed that we are sex offenders. There has been no incident to spark these witch hunts, no attacks or assaults in bathrooms by Trans* people, just prejudice. Now many Trans* people across America will have to either break the law or use the wrong bathroom, putting themselves in danger by massively drawing attention to themselves and risking harassment, physical violence or worse.
So what can you do? Simply supporting Trans* people, spreading a positive message for the day, using the hashtag #tdov on social media all helps to raise the visibility of the Trans* community. With visibility comes awareness, with awareness comes understanding and with understanding comes acceptance.
Izzi Johnson is a volunteer at Birmingham LGBT and facilitates the trans coffee mornings at Moments Cafe
Trans* Community coffee mornings
On the first and third Wednesday of every month, there is a small coffee morning in Moments cafe from 10:30 – 12:30
It is a friendly, safe space for people of all ages and gender expressions to come along, have a cup of tea and a chat with similar, like minded people who understand
We currently have a handful of regular attendees ranging in age from under 20 to over 60, and would love for this fortnightly event to gro
This month, the event will be running on the 6th and 20th April
If you would like any further information, or to be notified of future events, please email izzijohnson@blgbt.org
We hope to see you there!
