Valley AIDS Council, Under the Umbrella and Casa Orgullo will be holding celebrations Friday in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility.
There will be two events on March 31:
>> McALLEN: Under the Umbrella will host the celebration event at Valley AIDS Council, located at 300 S. 2nd Street Suite 101 from 6:30 until 9 p.m.
>> BROWNSVILLE: Following the announcement of the expansion of Casa Orgullo, a safe space for activities catering to LGBTQIA+ youth and their families, VAC will host the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new facility at Carlotta K. Petrina Cultural Center located at (1452 E. Madison St.) at 6 p.m. Afterward, festivities for Transgender Day of Visibility will be held until 7:30 p.m.
Both celebrations will be open to the public, with several activities in store such as an awards ceremony, access to community resources, performances, family games and refreshments.
Transgender Day of Visibility celebrates and commemorates transgender people while also raising awareness about discrimination and violence they face around the world.
“Transgender Day of Visibility celebrates the joy, strength, and absolute courage of some of the bravest people I know — people who have too often had to put their jobs, relationships, and lives on the line just to be their true selves,” President Joe Biden said Thursday in his proclamation. “Today, we show millions of transgender and nonbinary Americans that we see them, they belong, and they should be treated with dignity and respect.
“Their courage has given countless others strength, but no one should have to be brave just to be themselves. Every American deserves that freedom.”
According to The 19th, the event began in 2009 by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, who wanted people to have a moment of happiness. As a result, Crandall-Crocker made a Facebook post encouraging people to organize festivities in their hometowns — messaging accounts from all over the world.
“I’d been wanting there to be a special day for us for a long time,” Crandall-Crocker told The 19th. “And I was waiting and waiting for someone else to do it. And then finally I said, ‘I’m not waiting anymore. I’m going to do it.’”
To learn more about Transgender Day of Visibility, visit https://www.glaad.org/tdov.
The news release cited a study from the Trevor Project, which states that 1 in 5 transgender and non-binary youth attempted suicide, with LGBTQ+ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers.
