Trans Day of Visibility (TDoV)
In light of the intensifying attacks on trans folk, particularly on trans women, it is important to mobilize around occasions like TDoV. It is hard to know where to start in terms of enumerating sites of struggle from established writers suing people for calling out their transphobia on social media, to the mainstreaming and marriage of far right, TERF and white supremacist political movements, to the recent World Athletics on trans athletes, to the attacking trans people, and particularly youth, access to healthcare and criminalizing providers and supportive parents, to bans on drag, to the increasing number of violent attacks on and murders of trans people to ongoing anti-trans media bias, as evidenced by an open letter signed by roughly 200 contributors to the New York
At the same time, trans thinkers and activists have been pointing out that visibility is a trap for trans people, for over twenty years. If you are wondering about the problems of visibility, explains the issue from a UK perspective. Here are a few starting places for critically engaging the question of visibility and its impact on trans people's lives.
On this day, we would also like to share research and artistic work by trans scholars and creatives to claim the day and share trans joy!
- Namaste, Viviane. The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People. 2000.
- Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton, Eds. Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility. 2022
- Namaste, Viviane. 鈥 The "Transgender Question" and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory.鈥 2009
- Smythe, SA. On Black Nonbinary Method, European Trans Studies, and the Will to Institutionalization.鈥 2021
- Wesley, Saylesh. Sts'iy贸yesmest铆yexwslh谩:li鈥 2014
- Shakhsari, Sima. Healthcare for Queer and Transgender Refugee Applicants in Turkey鈥
Looking for trans artists to follow? Recent cultural work by trans people you might want to check!
To jumpstart your search see the list by 10 Transgender Art Creatives Whose Work You Should Follow
- Andrea Abi-Karam and Kay Gabriel. An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics.
- Shola von Reinhold.
- Cameron Awkward-Rich. Thinking with Trans Maladjustment.
- Joy Ladin.
- Joe Kadi.
Finally happy- and proud- to share work by two former students in the Gender Studies Graduate program:
- Misha Falk, and
- Dr. Avery Everhart. Querying Desires for Trans Historicity.鈥