This year, International Transgender Visibility day is on March 31st. It’s a day where we celebrate the transgender community’s resilience and joy in the face of adversity. It is also a day where we elevate trans voices and experiences. Even in Springbrook there is a large amount of transgender individuals who are integral parts of our community. So it’s especially important that we show support for and protect our trans individuals in the face of the recent developments in the anti-trans legislature.

Right now, there is a prevalence of anti-trans legislature, stripping trans people’s right to health care, education and basic freedoms. I interviewed a queer person from our community to get some input on how, as a community, we should celebrate trans voices and show support. They had this to say, “when uplifting transgender and queer voices in this current political climate, we have to remember that we’re louder together. You can’t change the status quo, create well planned protests and make meaningful impacts in our society if you don’t have an organized community.” So what are some examples of uplifting the trans community? You can:

• Show solidarity by asking and respecting queer people pronouns and names
• Politely informing others who make a mistake with pronouns and names (with respect to whether the queer individual is open about their identity or not)
• Including trans and queer people in conversations about history and politics
• Working on personal biases against trans and queer people
• Correcting/fact checking misinformation about trans and queer people