Transgender Day of Visibility Is Here! This Is What It Is and Why It Matters

Happy Transgender Day of Visibility!

The annual observance is today, March 31, and it's dedicated to acknowledging trans people and honoring their accomplishments – and their existence.

"TDOV was established in 2010 by activist Rachel Crandall, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD," Newsweek noted. The occasion "contrasts with the Transgender Day of Remembrance in November by focusing on visibility and celebration rather than mourning."

Among the celebrations planned in red as well as blue states include a rally in Austin, Texas; a rally and march in Salt Lake City, Utah; several events in Pennsylvania; and rallies, marches, and celebrations in more accepting places like New York and California.

"For a full list of events, check out local community resources and social media pages," Newsweek advised.

"By a general estimate, there are 3.3 million transgender adults across the United States," the publication detailed, referencing data provided by the Human Rights Campaign. That tally indicates that less than one percent of the population of the United States are transgender.

Even so, lawmakers – primarily Republicans – have spent an inordinate amount of time on transgender people, systematically attacking their right to be in the public square and even taking to steps to erase them from legal existence and social visibility.

"While TDOV is rooted in celebration, protests and marches remain integral to the event because of growing legal and cultural threats to transgender rights," Newsweek observed.

That animus radiates from the very top.

"In his first months in office, President Trump has rolled out a series of executive orders that openly target transgender, gender expansive, and intersex people, and purport to require recipients of federal funding to discriminate against transgender, gender expansive, and intersex people," NYCLU pointed out.

One executive order declared that only two sexes exist, male and female – an assertion that is medically questionable, given the existence of intersex people and genetic variations, even for people whose external genitalia seem to belong solely to the male or female gender.

The order also ignores the fact that many transgender people assert, with the full authority of their own lived experience, that they are indeed male or female – they're just not the gender that others assume them to be based on their physiology.

But such legal actions have drastic consequences for transgender people, including the loss of official forms of ID that accurately reflect their gender identity. Trans actor Hunter Schafer spoke out recently about the government disregarding her female gender identity and issuing her a passport that lists her as male.

Transgender people remain the target not only of legislative assault and attempts at social delegitimization, but also of brutal physical attacks. The Human Rights Campaign continuously tracks acts of lethal anti-trans violence, and took note of "the deaths of at least thirty-two transgender and gender-expansive people whose lives were tragically and inhumanely taken through violent means, including gun and intimate partner violence, in 2024."

Added the HRC: "These victims, like all of us, were loving partners, parents, family members, friends and community members. They worked, went to school and attended houses of worship. They were real people who did not deserve to have their lives taken."

Nonetheless, 2025 continues to see intense focus on the lives and rights of transgender people. "There have been more than 450 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state Legislatures across the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union," Newsweek said.

Other sources place the number somewhat higher: In the first three months of 2025, 821 bills have been introduced across 49 states targeting the lives, rights, and recognition of transgender Americans, according to Trans Legislation Tracker.

"We track legislation that seeks to block trans people from receiving basic healthcare, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist," the site explains.

Of those 821 bills, the tracker claims, 42 have passed – so far.

Hence the need for transgender people – and their cisgender allies – to speak up and be heard.

"Only a minority of Americans say they know someone who's transgender, according to the GLAAD, which makes accurate representation and public storytelling essential," Newsweek relayed. "TDOV serves as an opportunity to increase visibility."