Transgender Day Of Visibility Celebrated Amid Trump Administration Restrictions

March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual recognition meant to raise awareness of trans individuals and trans issues. This year’s Trans Day of Visibility is the first since Donald Trump returned to the White House, and it comes as the U.S. federal government has rolled back previous administrations’ policies and placed restrictions on trans recognition and opportunities.

Recognizing trans individuals and issues

International Transgender Day of Visibility, recognized on March 31 of each year, is an event meant to recognize trans individuals and foster connections and community. The event was founded in 2009 by psychotherapist Rachel Crandall-Crocker of Michigan, who said that the event “means we will resist, and we’re not going back into the closet — it’s a unified, strong voice saying, ‘We are here. We are here, and we’re not leaving,’” according to The Hill. This year, the event will include acts of protest against the Trump administration and its policies, with over a dozen lawmakers expected to join a demonstration on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Past recognition and controversy

Crandall-Crocker created Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009 as an addition to the preexisting Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual event marked in November that remembers victims killed by anti-trans violence. Later that year, then-President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which made violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity federal hate crimes. President Joe Biden regularly issued White House proclamations on Transgender Day of Visibility. This routine led to controversy in 2024, as Easter also fell on March 31, leading to false accusations that the White House or trans activists intentionally caused the event to fall on the same day as one of the most holy days in Christianity as an insult to Christians.

Trump policies put trans issues in new spotlight

This year’s day of visibility comes amid a variety of restrictions placed on trans rights by the Trump administration. One of the executive orders signed by Trump on Inauguration Day announced the government would only recognize male and female genders, and it reversed previous policies on transgender and gender-nonconforming recognition. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have also objected to transgender people serving in the U.S. military. Another Trump order called for a ban of transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports, though an attempt to reinforce this ban through federal legislation was killed in the U.S. Senate.

The politics of transgender identity are perhaps more visible than ever, even as the people involved face exclusions and rollbacks of previous recognition. With these various policies being put in place, this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility comes at a pivotal moment for trans individuals and the United States as a whole.