Rallies planned in nearly all 50 states on Transgender Day of Visibility

Rallies are being planned across the country in recognition of International Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place March 31 of each year.

Rallies are planned in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Seattle and more major cities. In total, there are more than 130 rallies scheduled in 48 of 50 states, with Wyoming and North Dakota the only exceptions. There will also be a main march in Washington, D.C., according to information from Queer Youth Assemble, a nonprofit founded in 2021 with the intention of fostering “a queer youth movement across the United States.”

Queer Youth Assemble published a list of nearly 30 demands it wants to see implemented at national, state and local levels, including codifying Title IX “to include sexuality, gender identity and gender expression”; asking schools across the nation to use chosen names for students in place of legal ones, if they wish; requiring schools to teach LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education; banning conversion therapy; banning unnecessary surgeries on intersex people who have not consented; allowing “transgender athletes to participate on the sports team that corresponds with their identity”; banning “genital checks and other invasive, unnecessary medical practices for all athletes”; and creating a federal law protecting transgender youth and adults’ right to health care and bodily autonomy.

“We are asking organizations, students, and individuals from across the country to sign on to our list of demands to show their support for queer & trans youth autonomy,” the Queer Youth Assemble website states. “This list of demands will be read at our march in Washington D.C. on March 31st, 2023.”

International Transgender Day of Visibility was started in 2009 by activist Rachel Crandall, who led advocacy organization Transgender Michigan at the time, and the day has been marked in more places every year since. In 2021, President Joseph R. Biden was the first president to issue a proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility.

This year, celebrations of the day will take place amid a firestorm of increasing anti-transgender rhetoric from conservative politicians and media organizations in the wake of a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school on March 27.

According to law enforcement, the shooting was carried out by a suspect who identified as transgender, and in the hours and days after that announcement, some on the right were quick to make baseless claims that the shooter’s identity contributed to the tragedy.

Conservative activist organization Gays Against Groomers tweeted the day of the shooting, without evidence: “We don’t know the details of her transition or at what age it started, but it was clear from photos that she was on testosterone. It is necessary to have the conversation about what these cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers are doing to young people that are suffering from mental health issues.”

Fox News host Tucker Carlson took to the airwaves on Tuesday — the day after the shooting — to blame transgender “ideology” for the shooting.

“Yesterday’s massacre happened because of a deranged and demonic ideology that is infecting this country with the encouragement of people like Joe Biden,” Carlson said on his evening broadcast.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.