Pink, blue and white signs lined the city corner outside Gainesville’s Hippodrome State Theatre March 31 for a Transgender Day of Visibility demonstration. Decked out in rainbow colors, a crowd of approximately 40 ranging from young college students to senior citizens gathered for the occasion.
Ruka Scarlett, a 33-year-old Gainesville resident who identifies as a transgender woman, planned the demonstration to show that trans identities intersect with nearly every community, she said.
“My trans-ness is a very, very small part of my identity and what makes me and what makes my life,” Scarlett said. “Until things like this happen where my rights are being taken away, and I have to make it a bigger part of my life.”
Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual international event that raises awareness about transphobia.
The demonstration was charged by recent attacks on the trans community in the state legislature, such as House Bill 1421, which would prohibit a person from changing the assigned sex on their birth certificate and prohibits minors from obtaining gender-affirming care, such as sex reassignment surgery.
It was boosted by the Gainesville chapter of National Women's Liberation, a “grassroots gender-affirming radical feminist organization fighting back against male supremacy, white supremacy and capitalism,” said Emily Calvin, the chapter’s chair.
Calvin, 35, spoke at the demonstration as a cisgender ally, she said.
“They're really just stripping away all of their rights and all of their health care. It's really scary,” she said. “None of us are safe.”
Bills that ban gender-affirming care and restrict bathroom use for trans individuals are especially scary, Calvin said.
Morgan Averette, a 31-year-old UF sociology doctoral student, identifies as a trans woman and is a member of Gators for Gender Affirming Care, a UF coalition fighting for gender-affirming care. The current legislative session has been heartbreaking, she said, but she felt uplifted by the demonstration.
“It's just been really overwhelming personally, as a trans woman,” she said. “Seeing people here support us and vocalize that support just really matters.”
If she wasn’t too far into her academic track she would plan to transfer, Averette said.
“We need people at the university to stand up for us and show that they prioritize trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming people,” she said. “As a student, I'm possibly looking at my health care being taken away.”
Among the crowd were Chris and Carmen King, a married couple with a 33-year-old trans daughter who lives in the Netherlands.
The Kings fully supported their daughter, they said, but the transition was difficult. They wanted to grieve the person she was before her transition, Carmen King said.
“It was definitely hard because I didn't want to show her that I mourned for the other person that she had been,” Carmen King said.
Carmen King, a retired teacher, wrote her daughter a letter stating that her mind and heart were fully open for her. She feels relieved to be out of education, describing a lack of academic freedom in the Florida school system. For instance, school boards banning books will be detrimental to students, she said.
One piece of legislation — House Bill 1521 — is particularly worrisome, Carmen King said. The bill would force educational institutions to separate males and females in bathrooms and dressing rooms based on sex; it would also require separate housing in correctional facilities and domestic violence shelters.
“I feel that the bathroom ban that they are trying to push through today is going to cause everybody to stand out,” she said.
Salem Calypso, 34, who identifies as a trans, intersex woman, said the bills in the current legislative session would encourage transphobia.
“It's just heartbreaking to see that they're demonizing us and using us as a target,” she said.
Samara Powers, a 52-year-old Gainesville resident who attends Meadville Lombard Theological School, hopes to become a leader in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, a liberal faith based on love that aims to be welcoming and inclusive to all forms of people and beliefs, she said.
Powers has a 22-year-old trans daughter. She came to the protest to show her support and allyship to both her followers in faith and her daughter, Powers said.
She’s considered moving out of the state given the legislative session, she said.
“There really is a dismantling of the processes of democracy that is just deeply disturbing,” Powers said.
Contact Ella at ethompson@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @elladeethompson.
Ella Thompson is a fourth-year journalism major and the Fall 2024 Digital Managing Editor. She was previously the Metro Editor at The Alligator and an intern at the Las Vegas Review-Journal covering education. In her free time, she likes to cook soup, read a good book and plan her next trip.
