On Trans Day of Visibility, Chicago leaders push back on Trump's attacks
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Transgender Day of Visibility speakers. Photo: Carrie Shepherd/Axios
A coalition of elected officials and human rights activists is warning that the Trump administration's attacks won't stop with the transgender community.
Driving the news: On Monday, International Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV), state, county and city politicians joined LGBTQ+ rights organizations to push back on the narratives the administration has spun about transgender people and proclaim they won't be made invisible.
- More than 5,000 people marched through downtown Sunday as part of a TDOV event organized by Illinois-based advocacy group Trans Up Front.
The big picture: Multiple executive orders by Trump have attempted to roll back protections and civil rights for transgender people.
What they're saying: "Trans people are oftentimes labeled as an invisible population," Brave Space Alliance CEO Channyn Lynne Parker said. "There is nothing invisible about us."
- "We are not here to be cuddled or coddled."
Zoom in: Several speakers warned that the administration would not stop with the transgender community, suggesting the president will attempt to strip other groups of rights and freedoms.
- "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," Caprice Carthans from Life is Work said. "We are all on the menu."
Zoom out: The frustrations extend beyond the executive branch. Several speakers Monday said they think some Democrats are either scapegoating the community or treating them as victims.
- "Folks are suggesting that we lost because of the trans community," state Rep. Kelly Cassidy told Axios.
- "We heard our former mayor make jokes about locker rooms and suggest this was the cause," Cassidy said, referring to Rahm Emanuel's recent comments to Bill Maher.
Flashback: Transgender Michigan executive director Rachel Crandall Crocker started TDOV in 2009 as a "response to the overwhelming majority of media stories about transgender people being focused on violence," according to GLAAD.