The 2024 Trans Visibility March was held on August 24. (Washington Blade photo by Erkki Forster)
Community members, advocates, and LGBTQ leaders came together for the annual National Trans Visibility March on Aug. 24 amid a weekend filled with workshops and events focused on transgender rights and advocacy. It was the first time the march returned to D.C. since its inaugural event in 2019.
About 400 people attended the march, which began with a rally at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters at 1 p.m. Hope Giselle, president of the National Trans Visibility March, took the stage to demand respect for the transgender and non-binary community, and emphasize the power the community wields.
“We stand tall because that is power; the ability to influence the people that say that they were un-influential, the ability to speak life into people who have had their very existence crushed by the folks that were supposed to nurture and honor them,” Giselle told the crowd.
The crowd was energized with call-and-response refrains of “Trans — power, trans — power,” as other speakers took the stage, including Rev. Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, who led an empowerment service at National City Christian Church before the rally, and Jay Jones, Howard University’s first trans student president. The president of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, also spoke, connecting the fight for transgender rights to broader LGBTQ causes.
“You can’t get to equality where Black trans women are being killed in the streets. You can’t get to equality where our trans and non-binary kids are under attack,” she said. “Y’all, none of us is free until all of us are free.”
Giselle then honored Robinson with a Torch Award, which Robinson had missed receiving at the ceremony on Friday evening due to being at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where she spoke. The National Trans Visibility March presents the award to “individuals whose work has impacted the lives of Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming and Non Binary (TGNCNB) communities across the nation.”
At 1:30 p.m., the crowd began to make its way down 17th Street, N.W. before turning onto P Street, N.W., toward Dupont Circle. Marchers held signs proclaiming “Trans rights are human rights,” “Protect Trans Siblings” and “Trans Lives Matter.” The march then circled back toward the HRC headquarters.
Jordan Alexander, who was crowned king in the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition’s Pageant in May, reflected on the importance of visibility for the transgender and gender non-conforming community.
“This march makes sure that people like us see people like us. A lot of the time we don’t see positive images of ourselves. There’s a lot of talk about how we kind of go at each other, and so this is just a great time for us to come together as family and to show people that we can unite when it’s time,” Alexander said.
The march took place against the backdrop of continued legislative attacks against the transgender community. The transgender legislation tracking organization translegislation.com has tracked a record-breaking 642 anti-trans bills considered across 42 states this year, of which 45 have passed.
Republican-governed state legislatures are attacking transgender and gender non-conforming people’s rights, introducing bills that target nondiscrimination laws and access to gender affirming care. Book and drag performance bans have also been instituted.
Anti-trans legislation has also been introduced on the federal level, and Donald Trump has promised to revoke LGBTQ protections and enforce discrimination through federal law if reelected.
Jamison Henninger, executive director of the DC Area Trans Masculine Society, said the march showed the transgender community’s readiness to mobilize in this year’s election.
“It’s great to be able to come out together and show people that you know we are a strong minority, and that our rights matter and that we won’t be passive in the legislation that tries to attack us,” he said.
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