International Trans Day of Visibility

Rachel Crandall, a U.S.-based transgender activist, founded the International Trans Day of Visibility to raise awareness of the incredible burden of discrimination the community faces in every setting imaginable.

The need to bring a day of ‘visibility’ for the transgender community is indicative of the oppression trans people face in many sectors of life.

Crandall wanted to highlight the fact that the only transgender-centric day that is internationally recognized is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is in mourning of members of the community who had lost their lives, and that there was no day to pay homage to living transgender people.

By 2014, the day was observed by activists in Ireland and Scotland while, in 2015, many transgender people took part in the event by participating in social media campaigns. They successfully made the day go viral by posting selfies and personal stories.

For Trans Day of Visibility 2022, BWSS has updated our safety plan guide for trans women, transfeminine people, femmes and women with trans experience.

Our updated safety planning guide includes:

Transfeminine, often abbreviated to transfem, is a term used to describe transgender people who generally were assigned male at birth and identify with a feminine gender identity to a greater extent than with a masculine gender identity.

Usually transfeminine people try to appear stereotypically feminine in terms in their gender expression in order to create social recognition of their dominant feminine identity. The genders that can fall under transfeminine include:

• Transgender women
• Demigirls
• Multi gender people whose strongest gender identity is a feminine one
• Genderfluid people who are feminine most often
• Any other non-binary gender who views themselves as significantly feminine
• Transfeminine can also be used as a gender identity in its own right. Although they have feminine gender identities, transfeminine people may prefer not to conform to stereotypical feminine gender expression or gender roles and may not try to appear more feminine.

The masculine equivalent of transfeminine is transmasculine.