International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) is held on March 31. This day serves to bring awareness to the discrimination and violence the community faces, while also celebrating transgender people around the world. Transgender Day of Visibility was established in 2010 by Rachel Crandall due to the overwhelming number of news stories about transgender people facing violence.
Transgender is a descriptor for anyone whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. People can identify as male, female and other genders such as nonbinary, genderfluid or agender.
Most transgender people identify with a different set of pronouns, such as she/her, he/him or they/them. Despite mostly being spoken about by transgender people, everyone has pronouns, even cisgender (non-transgender) people. It is a simple grammatical term that everyone uses in daily conversation. If you are cisgender, your pronouns are what gender you were born and identify with – he/him for men and she/her for women.
Many transgender people seek hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or gender-affirming surgery to feel more comfortable in their bodies, although this is not a requirement to identify as transgender.
On estimate, less than one percent of the population is transgender, but this still amounts to about two million people in America alone. Transgender people are human beings and not a topic to be avoided.
In 2026 alone, there are over 600 anti-transgender bills in 28 states being considered by legislation. In 2025, there were over 1,000. Many seek to restrict transgender people’s access to gender-affirming care, with others policing what bathrooms transgender people are allowed to use (with cis people being targeted as well). Some bills even argue transgender people’s complete eradication from public life and argue that they should not be allowed to exist where children are able to see them.
The moral panic over transgender people in this time is completely unnecessary. Transgender people are not causing any problems by simply existing. Transgender people are not predators. They are not after your family and children. They just want to live their lives like anyone else, and if people disagree with it, they need to mind their own business. There is no “transgender problem” that needs to be solved.
The best thing you can do for transgender people is to treat them like anyone else. Do not treat them like some subhuman marvel to be stared at or questioned about their experiences. Other things you can do are introduce yourself with your pronouns and ask others what theirs are to ensure a comfortable environment for transgender people.
Lake Land College also offers Safe Zone Ally training. You can take an online course to better understand how to treat LGBTQ+ people and be an ally, and you get a pin and a sticker that shows others that you’re a trained ally. Reach out to Mercury Bowen ([email protected]) for more information!
