The Cross Cultural and Gender Center at Fresno State recently made itselves visible on campus with its rainbow pride table set up in the free speech area. It was all a part of Women’s Herstory Month events on campus.
Wednesday was Trans Day of Visibility which aims in supporting Trans students by fighting cissexism and transphobia. For those who don’t know, cissexism is the prejudice or discrimination against transgender people.
“Trans Day of Visibility is a day to celebrate people that are Trans and to promote awareness of our community,” said Hnenry Blair double major of history and women’s studies at Fresno State.
Every year the event has a theme. This year’s them is visibility, which encourages all Trans people to come out and be visible. Some people experience violence due to their visibility and some others don’t want to be visible according to transstudent.org.
“I definitely get a lot of people who don’t understand what trans means, and they will be openly prejudiced. Or since I’m more of a tomboy — looking person, since I have the sides of my head shaved, I’ll get a lot of flack about being a dyke,” said Krysten Cherkaski a women’s studies major at Fresno State.
Trans Day of Visibility was created in 2010 by Rachel Crandall executive director and co-founder of Transgender Michigan.
“This is the first year that our program has put on this event. We have community partners like Trans-e-motion who has been doing work around this event for many years, but on campus this is the first time we’ve done this,” said Jessica Adams, coordinator of the Cross Cultural and Gender Center at Fresno State.
According to their website, Trans-e-motion is a nonprofit organization that’s mission is to honor and celebrate the lives of transgender persons, both past and present, and to bring about social change for the benefit of the transgender/transsexual community through activities and events that bring education, understanding and support to all.
“80 percent of Trans students feel unsafe at school because of their gender expression and that 41 percent of trans people have attempted suicide,” according to transstudent.org.
Despite the statistics, the event aimed to shine a more positive light on the Trans community and bridge a gap with those who don’t understand their lifestyle and represent alternative lifestyles to enlighten the public about this gender identity issues.
“It’s an event that exists to highlight trans people worldwide, we have events like trans gender day remembrance, which acts as a memorial for people who have passed, but this is a more uplifting day to show trans people exist and the great things they are doing in the world,” Said Cherkaski.
If you have any questions or need support, you can contact the Cross Cultural and Gender Center at 559-278-4435 or you can contact Trans-e-motion at 559-464-5806.
