Transgender Day of Visibility

A Proclamation on Transgender Day of Visibility, 2024

On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives.  

I am proud that my Administration has stood for justice from the start, working to ensure that the LGBTQI+ community can live openly, in safety, with dignity and respect.  I am proud to have appointed transgender leaders to my Administration and to have ended the ban on transgender Americans serving openly in our military.  I am proud to have signed historic Executive Orders that strengthen civil rights protections in housing, employment, health care, education, the justice system, and more.  I am proud to have signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law, ensuring that every American can marry the person they love. 

Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our Nation.  Whether serving their communities or in the military, raising families or running businesses, they help America thrive.  They deserve, and are entitled to, the same rights and freedoms as every other American, including the most fundamental freedom to be their true selves.  But extremists are proposing hundreds of hateful laws that target and terrify transgender kids and their families — silencing teachers; banning books; and even threatening parents, doctors, and nurses with prison for helping parents get care for their children.  These bills attack our most basic American values:  the freedom to be yourself, the freedom to make your own health care decisions, and even the right to raise your own child.  It is no surprise that the bullying and discrimination that transgender Americans face is worsening our Nation’s mental health crisis, leading half of transgender youth to consider suicide in the past year.  At the same time, an epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls, especially women and girls of color, continues to take too many lives.  Let me be clear:  All of these attacks are un-American and must end.  No one should have to be brave just to be themselves.  

At the same time, my Administration is working to stop the bullying and harassment of transgender children and their families.  The Department of Justice has taken action to push back against extreme and un-American State laws targeting transgender youth and their families and the Department of Justice is partnering with law enforcement and community groups to combat hate and violence.  My Administration is also providing dedicated emergency mental health support through our nationwide suicide and crisis lifeline — any LGBTQI+ young person in need can call “988” and press “3” to speak with a counselor trained to support them.  We are making public services more accessible for transgender Americans, including with more inclusive passports and easier access to Social Security benefits.  There is much more to do.  I continue to call on the Congress to pass the Equality Act, to codify civil rights protections for all LGBTQI+ Americans.

Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans:  You are loved.  You are heard.  You are understood.  You belong.  You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility.  I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity.

     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.

                             JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

Wearing Tory Burch

Excuse Me?

 

Wearing Bardot

Femulator beauty pageant in Poth, Texas, 1975

In Her Shoes

Wearing Ann Taylor

William Bendix and Dennis O'Keefe femulating in the 1944 film Abroad With Two Yanks.

Frat Girls

Cool Good News!

'American Idol' contestant from Waterbury is going to Hollywood after Katy Perry calls her 'full of light'

This is a big deal because a transwoman appeared on American Idol (that may or may not be a first – I dunno) and it is a little deal because she is from Waterbury, my hometown! 

You can read all about it by clicking here.

Wearing Altuzarra

Simon Hanselmann, award-winning Australian-born cartoonist

Bagged Man

Wearing Tory Burch

Femulators in the 2016 Menlo College Drag Show
Click here to see video clips of the show on YouTube.

Weather or Not

 

Wearing ModCloth

Moorish Stevens, 1960's professional femulator

Future "Men" of the House

Recommended Reading: The Gender Refugees

When the Andersons fled Iowa City in 2022, they joined a growing group of American families escaping states that have become hostile for transgender communities. Where do they go from here?

By Jess Swanson

Nora Anderson has left a lot of places. When administrators forgot to unlock the only unisex bathroom at her high school in Iowa City, Iowa, the transgender 15-year-old (who felt uncomfortable using the girls’ restroom) got picked up by her parents so she could use one at home or a nearby grocery store. After a classmate suggested starting an “anti-trans club,” she transferred out of the public school system and switched to homeschooling. Nora couldn’t even get a German pastry at the farmers market without a blonde middle-aged woman shouting, “Look! There’s a boy in a dress!” She left without buying anything. Then, in 2022, the governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, aired a campaign ad saying, “We still know right from wrong, boys from girls.” Nora and her family no longer felt welcome—or safe—in their home state. So they packed up and moved to Portland, Oregon. “It’s pretty sad having to leave all the time,” Nora says with a sigh.

Refugees flee war, violence, conflict, and persecution. They are displaced families who have lost their homes in battle. They are environmental migrants forced to escape famine due to historic droughts. They are not, as we traditionally think of them, American families driving SUVs cross-country. Though the Andersons didn’t flash their passports at the border or submit to questioning by immigration officers, leaving Iowa meant they joined a growing group of so-called gender refugees escaping states that have become increasingly hostile for the transgender community.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Elle.

Wearing Bebe 

Another "Man" of the House

Wearing Nine West

Vickie Jordan, professional femulator

"Man" of the House

 

Wearing Boston Proper

The Old Girls' Club

I recall a few years ago, when a group from my support group attended a presentation by Jennifer Finney Boylan, the author She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders.

One of the members of the group, Deja, wrote about the experience for our support group’s newsletter. “After her presentation Ms. Boylan opened up the floor for questions. After several ‘easy’ questions… Jenny was hit with a rather uncomfortable question from a genetic woman in her early 50s. The woman was truly trying to work this thing called transgenderism out, but she took the mood of the whole night in a different direction with her barrage of questions and comments.

“The tone of her questions was searching, but antagonistic. She basically said that she didn’t get transgenderism and that how can Jenny, after living the life of a privileged upper class white male, now expect to be welcomed as a woman. She further pointed out that Jenny did not have to go through growing up as a female, being teased by boys, dealing with menstruation, dealing with childbirth, and facing everyday discrimination. The woman topped it off by saying ‘frankly, I don’t want you as a member of my club.’

“Jenny was clearly shocked as was most of the audience and was taken aback and put on the defensive. She paused to compose herself, thought, and delivered her answer. Jenny agreed that these were all fair questions but that she did not expect them and could not answer them all right now…”

True, Jenny (and I) “did not have to go through growing up as a female, being teased by boys, dealing with menstruation, dealing with childbirth, and facing everyday discrimination.” However, growing up as a white male, who had yearnings to be female, at least some of the time, I was teased by boys and faced discrimination.

As a boy, I was not considered “macho,” although that term did not even exist in the English language when I was growing up. Other boys called me “fairy,” “twinkie,” ”faggot” and “sissy.” I did not know why. I did not think that I acted effeminately. I did not think that I looked effeminate either; I was the biggest kid in my class (200 pounds by the 5th grade) and I was the first boy who had to shave (by the 8th grade). I loved playing baseball and football, but I was usually picked last when choosing up sides (I could hit the baseball a mile, but I threw “like a girl.”). I did very well in grammar school (salutatorian in my graduating class) and was often considered the “teacher’s pet.” Maybe that gave the other boys mixed messages.

Things were not much better in high school. Some of the jocks got on my case. On graduation day, I recall a jock asking why I was in line with the boy graduates instead of the girl graduates. I also remember my Spanish teacher wondering aloud if I would dress like a senorita for “Spanish Night.” (I threw her for a loop when I showed up dressed like Fidel Castro sporting a fake beard, cigar and fatigues.)

By the time I was in high school, I had been experimenting for years with my sister’s and mother’s wardrobe. I felt very guilty about it and was sure that I was destined to spend eternity in Hell.

Attending a Catholic high school did not help matters. Once a month, the nuns marched us to church next door to confess our sins. One time, I remember making up my mind to confess my crossdressing sins, but when I got in the confession booth, I froze up and could not get out the words describing my sins. The priest sensed something was wrong and said he would forgive any sin I was too embarrassed to recall to him. All I had to do was admit that I had sins(s) I was too embarrassed to enumerate.

Here was my chance to get off the hook, a free pass that would enable me to start anew with a clean slate, but I blew it. I could not admit that I was hiding something from the priest! I ended up saying two Hail Mary’s and two Our Father’s and berating myself for years over that flub!

College was no better, but by then, I was used to my status and made the best of it. Boys and now even some girls teased me. Try asking a girl for a date when that girl thinks you are a “fairy” or worse. How many times did I hear “you are a nice guy, but…” It hurt and I could not understand why I was being hurt. In my mind, I was not effeminate, so why was I being treated as if I was effeminate.

Today, I still don’t think I am effeminate; I act like I always acted and that is as my natural self; I am not faking it, I am not pretentious; I am not trying to fool anybody. But, now that I am older and a little wiser, I can put two and two together and realize that I have feminine traces in my male persona that other people recognize.

Sobeit. I try not to be concerned how others think about me. In my gut, I still care some of the time, but I try to convince myself that I shouldn’t care and maybe someday, I will be completely free of guilt.

And, in response to the woman who said she did not want Jennifer Boylan as a member of her club, I say “That’s ok,” because, as Marx once said, “I do not care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”

Wearing Matches

Marek Kaliszuk femulating Ariana Grande on Polish television's Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo (Your Face Sounds Familiar).
You can view this amazing femulation on YouTube.