March 31, 2021

Dear PWN community,

Today is the International Transgender Day of Visibility, and building a world where it’s safe for transgender and gender non-conforming people to live their truth has never been more important. None of us are free until transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, especially TGD people of color, are free.

Transgender and gender diverse people face violence in every form: denial of quality, compassionate healthcare; invisibility in data collection and reporting; misgendering; family rejection; and a literal epidemic of murders of transgender women of color. Our hearts are broken and we are outraged at the recent spate of state-level anti-trans legislation in the form of bills that target TGD athletes and which seek to deny healthcare – a basic human right – to people of trans experience, and which particularly and egregiously target children of trans experience.

Today, on the Transgender Day of Visibility 2021, we are inspired by and uplift the powerful vision of the Trans Agenda for Liberation put forth by our comrades at Transgender Law Center which demands that:

  1. Black trans women and Black trans femmes must be trusted to lead.
  2. Social justice movements must center and honor the leadership of Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Asian, Indigenous, Black, and migrant transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and two-spirit peoples.
  3. Trans people must be affirmed from the moment of their birth and empowered as their authentic selves at home, at school, and in public life.
  4. Trans people must have the freedom to define themselves and be guaranteed safety, bodily autonomy, and self-determination
  5. Trans people must have the freedom to thrive, without cages, with full rights and protections, including recognition of sex work as protected labor.

Read the Trans Agenda for Liberation in full and sign on to endorse it here. 

We call on cisgender people in the HIV movement to participate in creating a safe and just world for our trans family by:

  • Committing to ongoing learning about gender diversity and using language that honors the self-determination of TGD people. [Examples: Misgendering is harmful. Cisgender people declining to use pronouns is a privilege that can place TGD colleagues and community members at risk for violence] 
  • Active practice of allyship and accomplicing. [Examples: Speak up when you witness something problematic. For more, watch this powerful webinar on Allyship and Accomplicing featuring presentations by Tiommi Luckett, Sophia Kass, and Octavia Lewis here to learn more about what you can do]
  • Changing our own organizations and institutions to truly be trans-inclusive, at the highest levels of leadership and decision-making [Examples: ensuring representation from transgender Black people and people of color on your board, in management roles, paying transgender people for their labor, etc]
  • Working proactively to dismantle systemic violence against trans communities that shows up in the form of harmful policies, and to advance human rights, safety, and dignity for transgender and gender diverse people [Examples: fight to oppose anti-trans legislation. Create safe spaces for TGD people in clinics, schools, and throughout our communities]

On this international day of transgender visibility, we want our trans family to know that we see you, we honor you, and we will stand in support of you until our mutual liberation is accomplished.

Until all of us are safe and free, none of us are safe and free.