The first National Trans Visibility March took place in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28, 2019. A crowd of more than 5,000 transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming activists and allies marched from Freedom Plaza down Pennsylvania Ave. asking the leaders of this country “Do you see us?”
“That first year, that was what it was really about,” says Marissa Miller. “Even before we ask you to do anything, do you see us?”
Miller was one of the founding members of the NTVM and on the original planning committee for the first march.
“We were in a really interesting time,” Miller says. “Trans people were thriving but they were also being murdered. So we were trying to figure out a way to celebrate our accomplishments and bring awareness to the violence.”
What started off as a conversation among a handful of activists fast became a mission to plan one of the largest gatherings of the transgender community to march for their rights. First was deciding where to hold the march.
“That first year was about being visible, and the place where the rules are made and broken, where policy is changed and implemented, is in Washington, D.C.,” Miller says. “Everything takes place there. So to be able to march in the nation’s capital, I think we had no other choice but to be in D.C.”
As the team began to organize, and eventually got funding through a GILEAD sponsorship, Miller says the main focus was just making sure the march had the biggest impact possible.
“I don’t think we actually knew how big this was going to be or that it would turn into an annual event,” she says. “We just knew we needed to move bodies across the country and get them to Washington, D.C.”
Event organizers had a scholarship list of 1,500 people who they were going to assist in getting to the nation’s capital.
“I think the most exciting thing to watch was the team coordinate flights and make sure the trans people that had never traveled before were educated about TSA and Greyhound. Just making sure that all the arrangements were made,” Miller recalls. “The one thing we realized is that a lot of trans people have never travelled before. They’ve never had the opportunity to come together. There were trans people who had never been around other trans people before. This was their first opportunity to be able to be with their siblings, so I think at that time we were just thinking about reunion. A time when we could all come together.”
The National Transgender Visibility March on Washington began with a two-and-a-half hour rally with impassioned speakers that included “Pose” and “American Horror Story” actor Angelica Ross and Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. She read an official proclamation issued by the mayor declaring Sept. 28, 2019 as Trans Visibility Day in D.C.
The first march was a huge success, but it also showed organizers where they needed to improve for the next march.
“After the first year, we realized we needed to do a better job at keeping people safe. No matter how much we had done beforehand, there were still trans people who didn’t understand why the bathrooms were so far, there were still trans people that did not have a great experience with TSA because their driver’s license did not match their person. We just learned a lot about safety the first year,” Miller says.
After the success of the first march, the committee began planning for the next march. Then as the world welcomed 2020, it seemed they would have to change up how they would plan the next event.
“I think we realized in January 2020 that potential programming needed to be different. I don’t think we necessarily understood in January that COVID was what it was,” Miller says. “At the time, we thought ‘OK, people are getting sick but we should be able to push through.’ Then people started to die and events started to shut down. But we also recognized that it was an election year and that it was important for people to show up for the vote. This was a very crucial election for trans and nonbinary people especially.”
It started to become clear that the next event would have to be done virtually.
“If the first year was about visibility, the second year was about saying ‘we are here and we need to show up and vote,’” Miller says. “We talked about voting and we were able to encourage trans and nonbinary people who normally wouldn’t have been a part of the voting process to be a part of the process.”
The NTVM went back to D.C. and partnered with Capital Pride, the Human Rights Campaign and TD Bank, and set up in spots that were of significance to them.
“The Supreme Court, the Capitol, The White House; places that we needed to make sure we were visible. Each of those locations we had speakers, whether they were there in person or virtually, it just all came together. Our sponsors came together and said ‘what do we need to do to make this happen,’” Miller says. “They covered a trolley to look like the trans flag and we rode around D.C. while we connected to people who were holding watch parties across the country. People in different places so we could be connected on a national level.”
When it came time to decide on what the march’s third year would look like, organizers began asking whether they should take the march to a different city.
“Year one, Orlando was just so organized and giving and willing,” Miller recalls. “The unity they had. So when we started to talk about where to hold the next march Orlando just kept coming to the top of the list because of their dedication. When you get people who pour into you then you go back and you pour into them and that’s exactly what we want to do.”
On March 31, the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Miller spoke at an event at HÄOS on Church and announced that the NTVM would be in Orlando in 2021 and that they would march on Oct. 9, the same day as Come Out With Pride.
“This year’s theme, ‘No Lives Left Behind,’ will focus on regional safety plans to address the number of tumultuous murders that are continually taking place with trans-identified people. We are taking the National Trans Visibility March back to the streets and on this day, where we celebrate National Trans Visibility Day, we are so pleased to announce that we have selected Orlando, Florida as the host city,” Miller wrote in a statement ahead of the announcement.
Along with partnering with COWP, the NTVM is also collaborating with One Orlando Alliance, who serves as this year’s local host organization.
“We went to the One Orlando Alliance because that organization represents the entire LGBTQIA community in Orlando,” says Mark Kornmann, the NTVM’s director of operations and fundraising. “It was a good way to go to one source and get people mobilized. When we started having the conversation, we initially were going to hold the march in September because we didn’t want to interfere with Pride but as we met with Jeff [Prystajko, COWP’s board president], he said ‘why don’t we do it as a part of Pride?’ As we talked more it just seemed to make sense.
“It really is just a great way for us on the national level to partner with these two amazing organizations in a way so that the march doesn’t lose its identity nor does Come Out With Pride, and it is a way to support each other.”
While the NTVM will be an in-person event, due to the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Florida, it has been altered to be more of a hybrid event, incorporating virtual aspects into the overall march.
“Now anyone that comes they are more than welcome to march with us we just won’t be going about it the same way as in D.C.,” Miller says. “We want to keep people safe and don’t want to encourage people to travel. But we know that some people will be traveling.”
During the week leading up to the march, organizers will hold virtual opening ceremonies in five different cities: Orlando on Oct. 4, Chicago on Oct. 5, New York City and Sacramento on Oct. 6 and Atlanta on Oct. 7.
On Oct. 9, the day of the march, the event will kick off at 1 p.m. with a rally at the Unified By Pride Stage at the corner of Robinson Ave. and Eola Dr. in Lake Eola Park.
“We have speakers lined up including Tori Cooper from the Human Rights Campaign, Dominique Morgan from the Black and Pink organization,” Kornmann says. “Marissa will also be there and be speaking. It’s a good lineup of folks.”
Then at 2 p.m., the march will begin, starting at the Unified By Pride Stage and moving in the opposite direction of the COWP parade route. This will place marchers at the parade staging area allowing them easier access to their spot if they are participating in the parade.
For more information on the National Trans Visibility March and its surrounding events, visit NationalTransMarch.com.
