Who founded the Transgender Day of Visibility?

For 15 years now, the world has celebrated our transgender peers on March 31, the official Transgender Day of Visibility. The holiday hit a major milestone in 2024, as it celebrated a decade and a half years of trans love.

15 years feels like a long time, but in the grand scheme of things its barely a blip. Trans people have always existed, it just took until 2009 for their presence in our societies to be properly acknowledged. In the years since, they’ve been graced with their own day to celebrate the trials, tears, and tribulations that are part and parcel of the transgender experience.

The holiday was established a full decade after the Transgender Day of Remembrance was set down as a means to highlight the tragic loss of trans lives around the globe. The Transgender Day of Visibility aims to shine a much more cheerful light on the trans community, by celebrating the wonderful people who make it up. When it was first established, the celebration was seen as little more than an excuse to inject some joy into the community, but these days its a full-blown holiday in its own right.

The official Transgender Day of Visibility founder

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Exactly 15 years from March 31, 2024, Rachel Crandall-Crocker had a “sneaky idea” that turned into an international event. The Transgender Michigan executive director created the Transgender Day of Visibility, all the way back in 2009, as a means to come together with her trans peers and celebrate all the beautiful things that make them who they are.

By that point, Crandall-Crocker had been out for more than a decade. She first came out as trans in 1997, two years before the Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded and 12 years before the holiday she established became an annual tradition.

Today, on Transgender Day of Visibility, I have a simple message to all trans Americans:

I see you.

You are made in the image of God, and you're worthy of respect and dignity. pic.twitter.com/ihvsJrXEyd

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 31, 2024

As trans people everywhere stand alongside their friends, families, and allies to celebrate the progress our societies have made, they’re also forced to face the steps too many countries have taken backward. Even as businesses proudly tout the transgender flag alongside statements of welcome and love, trans people in the United States face continual attacks on their rights. The freedoms they’re entitled to are under constant attack by U.S. legislators, some of whom have helped states to pass bans on gender affirming care for youth.

Thankfully, Crandall-Crocker, and people like her, are putting in the work to ensure those efforts at trans erasure fail. They’re highlighting all the wonderful things trans people have done, and will do, for countries across the globe, and using the Trans Day of Visibility to ensure the message reaches as many people as possible.

Who founded the Transgender Day of Visibility?
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