A Letter for Trans Day of Visibility
Happy International Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV)! Every March 31st, we dedicate this day to celebrating trans folk and their contributions. While other holidays like Trans Day of Remembrance memorialize the lives lost to transphobia, this day was started by Rachel Crandall-Crocker in 2009 to celebrate trans joy and visibility.
Why is this celebration necessary? Trans folk disproportionately face just about every awful thing you could think of – poverty, sexual assault, substance abuse, you name it. And with the rise of transphobic legislation in the US, recognizing the humanity of trans people is critical.
While transgender is a relatively recent term, people that transcend gender have existed across the globe for as long we know. They’ve been immortalized in mythology and the arts. Trans women Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera threw the first bricks at the Stonewall Riots and contributed enormously to the rights of LGBT folk. Little things like Madonna’s ‘Vogue’, contouring or the slang term ‘tea’ wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Black and Latinx trans women of the ballroom scene. And most importantly, trans people contribute to our various communities (including STEM!) and are deserving of respect just for being human.
Overt and unintentional transphobia exists in STEM as well, where trans students often feel invalidated or invisible. A recent academic climate study by researchers in the Faculty of Science at UWindsor suggests that trans students experience a generally ‘warm, welcoming environment’ as a whole, but also many instances of bias, discrimination and discomfort. While this study is still under review, the findings are consistent with what we know about all academic environments: there’s still more work to do. The research is accompanied by evidence-based recommendations, including supporting existing LGBTQ+ stem initiatives, encouraging micro supportive behaviours like sharing pronouns and educating on microaggressions, and connecting these efforts to other actions in support of equity, diversity and inclusion. Creating an environment where trans people can be visible is key to tackling transphobia, and this can be done by celebrating the stories and accomplishments of trans folk.
The Healthy Headwaters Lab celebrates diverse ways of knowing, doing and being, it is simply essential for the sustainability of our planet. Finding ways to enable greater participation in science and support greater connection with one another and our ecosystems is a priority for us in the lab. We are learning and growing, together.
Want to learn more? Trans Wellness Ontario (TWO) has resources for both trans folk and allies, including resources for transitioning, being a better ally or educational programming resources. The hashtag #TransDayofVisibility is a great way to learn more about this celebration.
(There’s also #TransinSTEM and @StemTrans on Twitter that are good starting places for connecting with trans researchers and professionals).
Links: transwellness.ca, @transwellnessontario on Instagram
For more information on the Faculty of Science’s EDI Task Force, visit their website , contact the Task Force’s lead EDI Researcher: Dr. Michael Godfrey (michael.godfrey@uwindsor.ca ) or follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/uwin_sci_edi
And on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uwin_sci_edi/
