Saturday, October 3, marks the National Trans Visibility March (NTVM) 2020. The march and a week of related events will take place virtually this year. According to NationalTransMarch.com, the events “celebrate the courage it takes to live openly and authentically while also raising awareness about the discrimination trans people still face.”
Throughout the day of the march, viewers across the globe will tune in to watch speakers at various locations throughout Washington, DC’s eight wards, including the White House, the U.S Capitol and the Supreme Court.
Below is a POZ on Location video from last year’s march on DC:
This year, beginning Monday, September 28, activities such as workshops, panel discussions, an awards ceremony and voting drives will stream live. Topics of discussion include “Building Amazing Trans and Gender-Expansive Youth Programs,” “Owning It: The Entrepreneurial Journey,” “Gastrointestinal Consequences of HIV” and “Ending the AIDS Epidemic in the United States by 2025” (the latter event will be hosted by advocacy and policy group AIDS United).
“With COVID-19 causing a stronger enforcement of social distancing, a virtual march is the safest alternative to continue the mission of fighting for trans equality and encouraging the community to vote while pushing for spaces of vocal and social freedom among young leaders,” said Dani Farrell, the march’s national strategy director, in a press release. Farrell is also the founder and CEO of Trans In Color and TBuddy. “Our goal is to cultivate spaces that lend themselves to the people with the voices seldom heard and often needed during this year’s presidential elections.”
The first National Trans Visibility March took place September 28, 2019, and led to the day’s designation as National Trans Visibility Day in Washington, DC. The events aim to “push boundaries and create space for [transgender and gender-nonconforming] people],” according to NationalTransMarch.com.
The fold-out cover of December 2019
Last December, the 2019 POZ 100 celebrated transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary advocates. “This population has seen some of the highest HIV rates in the country,” POZ noted in the introduction. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 14% of all transgender women and about 44% of Black trans women have HIV. The CDC does not give an estimate for trans men. In 2017, trans people tested positive for HIV at three times the national average.”
To coincide with that issue of the magazine, POZ.com highlighted a slideshow of images from the first National Trans Visibility March along with a POZ on Location video, which you can watch above. It also included a Q&A with Marissa Miller, the lead organizer of the 2019 march.
To learn more about the intersection of HIV and the trans community, see the POZ Basic on HIV and Transgender People.
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