22/11/2024
Trans Awareness Week is a time of reflection, celebration and advocacy for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals and their allies. Occurring from Nov. 13 to Nov. 19, it provides a critical opportunity to highlight the lives, struggles and triumphs of the trans community preceding Trans Day of Remembrance Nov. 20.
Just as the lived experience of each trans individual is deeply unique and personal, so too is the meaning of Trans Awareness Week for the community it seeks to serve. Masee Anderson, a third-year criminal justice major, views Trans Awareness Week as an opportunity to increase the visibility of trans individuals like herself and to honor all the trans people who came before her.
âIt brings a whole light on issues we face as a group of people, and it really just showcases us for a whole week. Thereâs workshops on how you can learn to be a better ally. Thereâs workshops on resources around that we can use, and it brings to light those people in past history that have been here,â Anderson said. âSo, when people [say] like, âYouâve never existed before now.â Itâs like, no. We have existed for thousands of years, and it just shows that.â
Rhy Mack, a fourth-year creative writing major, sees Trans Awareness Week not as a presentation of transness to the cisgender population, but, rather, a commemoration of trans identity.
âTrans Awareness Week, to me, isnât about making cis people aware of the fact that trans people exist. To me, itâs a week of celebration, remembrance, love and resistance. I find it liberating to see other trans people talking about how much they love their transness,â Mack wrote to The Spectator.
(âđ» Chloe Platt & Caleb Stipkovits)
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(đž Noelle Lee)