Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place every year on March 31st, has been a focal point for both a celebration of the group’s strength and diversity and an awareness-raising effort about the challenges facing trans people in the United States since its founding in 2009. For example, a photo campaign on social media in 2015 drew a sizable following, piquing the interest of trans celebrities and raising awareness among the public. It reached a milestone in 2021 when Joe Biden became the first US president to publicly acknowledge the occasion.
This year, Transgender Day of Visibility falls amid a surge in anti-transgender legislation – with almost 500 anti-trans bills introduced in 2024 alone, following up on hundreds more bills in past years. Trans people in America now find themselves with limited access to things like medically necessary healthcare, participation in sports, the use of crisis shelters, bathrooms, and other essential facilities, and even the right to have proper identification. As a result of these activities, trans individuals are fleeing unfriendly states for safer ones, causing internal migration all over America.
This year, actor Cassils will collaborate with the National Center for Transgender Equality to create a huge cyanotype titled “Etched in Light” on the National Mall in Washington, DC. This initiative aims to both draw attention to these challenges and celebrate the joy and beauty of the trans community. The creation of the piece will take place as part of a full day of activities, including a rally by the NCTE to support the NCTE’s TRANSform the Vote campaign, which aims to mobilize a voting bloc of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people and their allies.
Cassils will invite over 100 transgender and nonbinary people to participate in the “Etched in Light” exhibit on a 60 by 15-foot piece of cyanotype-coated muslin. The participants will lie still on the muslin in various poses, and the sun’s UV rays will etch their forms into the photographic medium. The finished image will be washed with water to reveal it to the viewers. Three vocalists from the group Blood Is Here will perform improvised music as the pieces come together. According to Cassils, “it really harkens back to the AIDS Quilt and die-ins,” and it’s very much a visual that lends itself to the language of protest.
Cassils states that the project partly stemmed from the realization that representation does not guarantee rights for the transgender community even after the so-called transgender tipping point. In a time of increased danger and violence, they realized the importance of representing trans bodies, eventually discovering cyanotype. They were drawn to the fact that it was one of the earliest forms of photographic representation and that it would require trans bodies to gather and engage in physical contact. “I’m thinking about the issue of what it means to be seen when one needs to be protected. It’s about the process of taking up space and the ability to use nature to reshape a time and place. Being both beautiful and grounding us in a certain point of pain, it’s a very double-edged kind of thing.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality’s TRANSform the Vote campaign is being celebrated alongside “Etched in Light.” The NCTE made headlines earlier this year when it released the first results of its US Trans Survey, which it hailed as the largest trans population survey ever conducted in the US. The goal of TRANSform the Vote is to build on the engagement generated by that survey and maintain the momentum.
Josie Caballero, director of voting and elections at NCTE, states that TRANSform the Vote aims to show politicians that the trans community is a significant source of voter support. To achieve this, NCTE plans to launch a massive voter registration and voter-rights education campaign. The goal is to mobilize a significant portion of trans voters to oppose the passage of harmful laws.
“Even in states like Florida, these very toxic bills are only passing by slim margins,” she said. “We have the power to stifle these bills. We have a chance of winning many of these close races.” Caballero also pointed out that trans candidates have been winning in unexpected places where one might not expect trans people to hold elected positions. She cited Olivia Hill, who joined the Nashville City Council in 2023 as Tennessee’s first trans elected official.
“It’s really hard to see every day in the news, more legislation, more tragedy,” she told me. “Knowing that people are trying to turn the clock back on our rights makes me anxious. It emphasizes the ongoing struggle for equality and acceptance.”
The idea of mobilizing trans voters seems counterintuitive and necessary for Cassils, who has spent years finding creative ways to express trans liberation in opposition to a political system they believe has increasingly sought to marginalize trans people. They also made the point that many trans Americans can’t participate in politics because they lack proper identification and that, as an immigrant from Canada, they have experienced what it is like to be in the US and not have the right to vote. Despite all of that, they still believe that transgender people can use electoral politics. “I have this romanticization of art and its possibilities,” they said. “I do not have that for our political institutions. But I do think that one can be really strategic, so I think it’s a combination of strategy and vision.”
In the end, Cassils finds the idea of creating art in collaboration with their own community to be incredibly meaningful because they were raised before the advent of the internet and did not knowingly meet any other queer people until they were 23. With the emergence of the Trump administration, they have been producing an ongoing series called Human Measure that has made a specific effort to create community-based art. “Etched in Light” will be a powerful experience as a part of this series in that it helps them overcome their own past and fight back against the anti-trans rhetoric set by many politicians. “For me, to make these works and bring together hundreds of trans and nonbinary performers, to harness all of our talents – it’s an incredibly healing thing for me.”
