Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, is not for me, I do not believe there is a reason to promote my visibility.
Like many queer youths, especially my close friends, I was of the sentiment that I would not live to see my 20s.
One 2022 study found that transgender adolescents from ages 15-17 were at five times the risk of suicidal ideation and attempt at almost eight times the rate of cisgender peers.
Despite having found myself checking into a mental ward hours before my 19th birthday, I still don’t believe that Transgender Day of Visibility is for people like me.
The facts of the matter are I come from a very accepting and supportive household, my biological mother and father, as well as stepmother, have all been extremely supportive, socially and fiscally.
I’ve never had to worry my voice would be unheard or that I would be forced into being houseless due to my queerness, a truth for many queer youth coming from unsupportive households leading to about one-third of houseless youth being queer.
I’ve personally had a platform and had visibility on top of the stability I have had due to my family.
While I have faced death and rape threats both in person and online for being trans, I have never faced violence from these threats. Although, trans people currently face sexual violence at a rate over quadruple that of cis people, a fact I can personally attest to.
I also have not needed to go under any medical intervention to deal with gender dysphoria, a common stress for trans people on long waiting lists for months on end, just to receive medical care.
I have not been murdered. I have not been trafficked. I have not waited an arbitrary length of time for health care, and in all likelihood, I never will.
I have not found myself in a place where I was not visible and did not have a platform when I wanted one.
This day is supposed to remind people within and outside our community that the voiceless need to be visible. They need a platform to express their flawed human experiences and a place to be met with kindness.
It is a call out to all people whether you are a large social media influencer like Dylan Mulvaney or a random on the street that you should make it so those who do not have a voice get their story told.
Too many trans siblings leave their earth with nothing but a stone in a field and an obituary to their name if even that.
That needs to change.
I say it again and for one final time: I do not believe there is a reason to promote my visibility.
We must promote those who do not have that visibility so they may speak their own story. That is why we are a community.