Summary
Visibility is so important, but quite a paradox for transgender people. But there are ways to deal with it.
Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in the USA and among other achievements involved in the creation of the symbol of the Pride flag, also taught us the importance of visibility. We gain nothing from staying in the closet. Or in Harvey Milk‘s words: „Like every other group, we must be judged by our leaders and by those who are themselves gay, those who are visible. For invisible, we remain in limbo“1 Any advance in queer rights needed people to be visibly queer.
And the gay community learnt it the very hard way in the Aids crisis starting in the 80ies: If you‘re not visible, you don‘t receive support which in many situations is just vital. Silence equals Death.
Therefore it is logical to support Transgender Visibility and to have a dedicated International Day of Transgender Visibility, March the 31st, to raise awareness for this issue.
Still, things are a bit more complicated in this specific case. Many trans people wish to pass in their gender. And rightly so, no one should feel singled out in a wrong wrapping the moment they step out of their door.
Which by the way makes these accusations that especially trans women actually want to harass women in sheltered spaces so incredibly absurd.
We spoke on The Wyrd Thing podcast about the toupet fallacy: As people only count toupets they identify and not the other ones, they think all toupets are easy to recognize as such. In a similar way trans people who are not passing build the public image of trans people. Although „passing“ is definitely not a binary term. As my husband said to a trans woman who considered herself not passing: You are so much more feminine some of my female relatives.
But being visible as trans goes against not only physical safety issues, but also against the understandable wish not to be seen as an oddity: Trans men are men, trans women are women, so we could easily skip the prefix trans.
But unfortunately we can‘t right now. Trans people are severly attacked from the far right, being spotted as the easiest target to go for to take on minorities. Trans people currently are the front line in our defence against a massive attack on human rights.
So I am very happy about every single visible trans person – passing, non-passing or somewhere in between. But in this case, it‘s even more important than in others that allies step in to support trans visibility. Let us make clear that trans people are safe with us at every opportunity.
It‘s a good start to use the inclusive rainbow flag. It doesn‘t make you a bad person to use the traditional one, I‘m the last person to belittle Harvey Milk‘s heritage. But despite it‘s historical value and strong trademark qualities, it‘s time to show even more that trans people are an integral part of the queer community.
It‘s still just a start. Educate yourself. If you find a visible trans person to listen to, it‘s a great opportunity. If they are not around right now, books are the next best opportunity.
Support your local trans hero. If you understand German and haven‘t done it yet, buying and reading „Der lange Weg zur mir selbst“ by Georgine Kellermann is a definite recommendation. There must be other stories available in English, too. „The pink line“ by Mark Gevisser contains some very informative chapters about trans identity.
Having a look at the actual scientific facts also helps a lot. It was quite eye-opening for me that what I learned in school about genetic sex determination was not completely wrong but definitely only part of the story. Once you get lost in the almost indefinite possibilities of translocated SRY-genes, androgen insensitivity syndrome, persistent müllerian duct syndrome (syndrome being an unnecessary medical term here, but it‘s known as this) and so on, it‘s tough to insist that gender can be identified at birth in a binary norm without exceptions. It‘s so much easier to understand it as a continuum in more than only one dimension. Suddenly a male brain born in a female body or vice versa is just a logical conclusion which has to exist within all this variation.
Speak up if people talk nonsense about trans people. It‘s much easier if you know some personally and if you have your scientific facts ready. But in the end a little bit of empathy will suffice.
1See: https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~jklumpp/ARD/MilkSpeech.pdf , as of 29.3.2025