In the unfolding tragedy that is the transgender experience today, there has been a continued chorus of bigotry and hate.

Last fall saw the passage of Alberta’s Bill 9, which invoked the “notwithstanding clause” to override the Charter rights of trans youth to access life-saving medical care and supports for social transition; as well as the rights of trans women and girls to access gender-congruent sports. 

Last Thursday saw the International Olympic Committee ban trans women from the Olympic Games. And the yesterdays in-between saw daily indignities inflicted on trans people across Canada and around the world: from the expulsion of trans women and girls from Girlguiding in the U.K.; to the passage of legislation in Kansas putting a “bathroom bounty” on trans persons who access gender-congruent washroom facilities in that state; to the banal forms of transphobic prejudice enacted in Canada’s prisons and on Canada’s streets every day, which range from instances of micro-aggressive misgendering to increasingly normalized assault and murder.

In the midst of all this, March 31 marks yet another International Transgender Day of Visibility: a rather curious occasion on the global social-justice calendar given just how hyper-visible transgender people seem to now be every day of the year. We’re everywhere right now, at least, that is what the alt-right trolls and their political surrogates would have us believe.

One has to wonder: given our prominence in the political consciousness at present, and the increasingly negative consequences of that prominence, do we trans people even want to be visible anymore?

What’s visible on Transgender Day of Visibility

It’s true that a certain level of political visibility is necessary, practically speaking, to achieve political goals in a democratic state. If the general........

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