Transgender Day of Visibility events in Fresno aim to grow support, awareness

Transgender Day of Visibility is about spotlighting transgender people for positive reasons.

“Instead of always viewing transgender people as the victims of violence – what trans day of remembrance is about – it’s (Transgender Day of Visibility) about showcasing them as people with real talents and expertise and gifts,” said Jess Fitzpatrick, co-chair of Trans-E-Motion in Fresno.

There will be several Transgender Day of Visibility events in Fresno, starting this week with a movie night at Fresno State on Thursday and a rally and march on Friday.

Trans-E-Motion sponsored the first visibility events in Fresno last year. A study last year estimated there could be around 1.4 million transgender people in the U.S.

Fitzpatrick says transgender people make up less than a half percent of the total population.

“We need the support of our community and our allies because we are so small,” Fitzpatrick said. “Right now, without more resources, we are stuck in this mode of just always dealing with the latest emergency, and we aren’t able to do really systemic changes for our larger community.”

Some of the changes Fitzpatrick wants to see: Expanded medical care for transgender people and restored federal protections for transgender students. The Trump administration told school officials last month that they no longer have to allow transgender students to use the bathroom matching their gender identity. The issue has been the subject of some heated debates at Clovis Unified school board meetings.

Fitzpatrick says Trans-E-Motion regularly sees around 30 to 40 transgender people from throughout the central San Joaquin Valley at the group’s events and support groups every month. He said it’s a small but diverse group, with people from a wide range of socioeconomic groups and cultures.

He describes the definition of transgender this way: “Gay and lesbian, those are sexual orientations, those are people that are attracted to someone of the same sex. With the transgender community, that’s not about who they fall in love with, it’s about how they view themselves. It’s about how their brain has been wired. The gender they were told they were at birth doesn’t necessarily align with who they are actually.”

Fitzpatrick is working to bring this information to more people.

“There are different communities that have prejudices against the LGB (lesbian, gay and bisexual) part of the community, but especially the transgender community, because we have just started to get recognition,” he said. “We’re about 40 to 50 years behind the gay and lesbian movement as far as recognition and struggles, but we’ve been there from the beginning. It’s just a new issue within the communities we grew up in.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Transgender Day of Visibility events in Fresno aim to grow support, awareness."