Celebrate National Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31

Transgender and gender non-conforming people struggle every day for dignity, equality and security as they face systemic barriers to civil rights. Recent courageous activism has brought the issue to the forefront.

March 31 is National Transgender Day of Visibility – a day to recognize the challenges transgender people face in daily life and to recognize the accomplishments and resiliency of people in the transgender community.

In 2009, Rachel Crandall, a transgender activist based in the United States, held the first Transgender Day of Visibility to celebrate transgender people bring awareness to their struggles, according to nationaltoday.com.

According to the U.S, State Department, the transgender and non-conforming community are making strides toward equality for everyone, but the work needs to continue. The community still faces violence and discrimination.

“The United States supports the empowerment of the transgender and gender non-conforming community. We will continue to work with civil society, like-minded governments, and other human rights defenders to combat the criminalization of LGBTQI+ status, protect vulnerable LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers, advance non-discrimination, and provide meaningful responses to human rights abuses of LGBTQI+ persons. The LGBTQI+ community has an ally in the United States,” according to state.gov.

A proclamation President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed on his first day in office in 2021 stated that his administration was committed for “fulfilling the promise of America for all Americans by stamping out discrimination and delivering freedom and equality for all,” according to whitehouse.gov.

Biden’s executive order seeks to rooting out and preventing discrimination on the basis of “gender identity and sexual orientation.