The National Civil Liberties Union has identified 479 anti-LGBT+ proposed payments across the US since the start of 2024, with the majority of them aimed at transgender children. On March 31, the International Trans Day of Visibility ( TDoV ) is set to be the last thing trans people need right now. For many, staying in and having a good breakfast sounds decidedly easier.
And Tuck Woodstock is making that a real for the dozens of transgender people in the US. Tuck has hosted Trans Day of Staying In and Having Snack ( or Trans Day of Snack ) for the past three years as host of the podcast” Gender Reveal” and co-editor of the Lambda-nominated zine 2 Trans 2 Furious. Along with a group of volunteers, he’ll spend Sunday delivering$ 20 Venmo bills so transgender people can buy themselves a meal.
The” staying in” part of Trans Day of Snack is important, Woodstock explains, because being visible as a trans person right now often is n’t safe. As he puts it:” If someone who finds you threatening sees you being increasingly visible, they’re going to feel increasingly threatened, whether that is justified or not”.
” Visibility is exhausting and can be really dangerous”.
The increase in anti-trans laws in the US and around the world is a result of a growing awareness of transgender people. According to Woodstock,” The more the government has found out about us, the more that officials have discovered about us, the more they have come to the conclusion that we have far too many right, far too much awareness, and that it would be better for everyone if that was removed.”
And those rights are being taken away. Trans people are losing access to life-saving healthcare in many states. Trans youth are being banned from sports or forbidden to use the bathrooms that align with their gender. It feels like every week, there’s a death of another young trans person in the news. As Jerika Che, the lead organizer for Seattle Trans Joy, a group of trans and nonbinary BIPOC-majority organizers creating community event spaces for their local trans community, says: ” Visibility is exhausting and can be really dangerous”.
In one of the 26 says most negatively impacted by anti-trans policy, Woodstock and his group of volunteers may be distributing treat money this year to transgender people living in one of them. Any transgender person who lives in or just fled one of those states is use for breakfast money. Additionally, Woodstock also provides mutual aid to trans people from those states who are in dire financial need. Last month, according to Woodstock, they distributed$ 12, 700 for meals and$ 25, 100 in public mutual support.
Woodstock is gratified to see how many people have started organizing their own Trans Day of Breakfast or other local initiatives this year. This time, Seattle Trans Joy’s programs for Trans Day of Treat are straightforward, according to Che:” We’re setting up a desk in a neighborhood park and giving trans and genderfluid people free treats for being excellent. We’re giving apart” trans-colored soft vegan cookies.” Additionally, they’ll be able to donate daffodils from a nearby farmer, and a cook from the team will be bringing gluten-free vegan treats.
When Che first started planning activities like Seattle Trans Picnic and Seattle Trans Beachday in 2021, which were intended to connect local transgender people, she first learned about Trans Day of Meal. Trans Day of Breakfast really caught their attention because it resembles the method Seattle Trans Joy takes to their other activities. Many trans and nonbinary people do n’t know that they are welcome and belonging and have something nice to do because they’re trans, according to the group, who wants to make a space where they can feel like they’re wanted.
” Think of ways that you can significantly help gay and transgender organizing in your neighborhood.”
In the meantime, Vicky Stevenson is organizing Trans Day of Having a Nice Book in the UK. Stevenson is the owner of Pen Fight, an online gay female journal and store, and she’s enticing transgender friends to purchase books this year. Stevenson launched Trans Day of Having a Nice Book but that” trans people could ask any book they like, and I put it out for allies to get those books as gifts for them.” Inspired by Woodstock encouraging people to think of mutual aid projects they could work for trans people on an episode of Gender Reveal.
Stevenson originally planned to distribute 100 books, but 135 have already been purchased as gifts for transgender people. She wants to send books to all 368 of the people who requested them, and she believes it’s important that trans people choose the book they want:” I believe an important part of mutual aid is giving people what they need or want, rather than dictating from the top what they think people should have.”
Of course, buying trans people a book or giving money for snacks by cis allies wo n’t solve the systemic oppression that trans and nonbinary people experience every day. In fact, such actions can feel insignificant. There are more than a million people in Gaza who are actively starving to death at this time because of the genocidal decisions of the Israeli and US governments, according to even Woodstock, which is absurd.
It serves as a powerful reminder that trans people need action from cis people right now more than just visibility. Woodstock’s counsel to cis allies is to educate themselves on the anti-trans laws that are enacted in their area. ” Figure out ways that you can materially support queer and trans organizing in your community”, he suggests. ” Advocate for prison abolition, police abolition, and sex work decriminalization, because those are real, material things that would help trans people”.
Being trans in the world right now can be frightening, and increasing visibility is n’t always the answer. This Trans Day of Visibility, how about we skip the visibility and focus on action instead? And if that’s not enough, buy a snack for the trans people in your life.
Quinn Rhodes ( he/she ) is a freelance journalist who writes about ending shame and queer sex. His journalism aims to alter how intimacy is perceived and viewed. He’s written about sexual health, reproductive justice, queer culture, and blow jobs for publications including Vice, Mashable, and Cosmopolitan.
