Trans Activists Set For D.C. Rally Amid Trump Rollbacks

Activists are gearing up for an annual rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on March 31 dubbed, Transgender Day of Visibility.

The rally, expected to feature several Democrat lawmakers, will come in the wake of measures taken by President Donald Trump that transgender activists believe are harmful.

On Inauguration Day, President Trump signed an executive order establishing that it’s U.S. policy there are only two sexes, male and female. Another executive order on Feb. 5 called for prohibiting federal funding to any institution that allows biological boys and males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

The Trump administration reportedly is withholding $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania for allowing biological men identifying as women to compete in women's sports. Previously, the administration withdrew about $30 million in funding to the University of Maine for not complying with Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order.

Trump's Feb. 5 executive order also prohibited biological males identifying as women from being detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers. Further, a Jan. 28 executive order declared those who express "a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service." Federal judges have temporarily blocked those two policies.

The Christopher Street Project, named for the street in New York City where riots in 1969 spurred the rise of the gay rights movement, is leading the Transgender Day of Visibility.

"The goal of this event is to, first and foremost, be in community with one another," Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, told The Hill on Wednesday. "We need to recognize that trans joy is resistance, and we are going to be there with that in mind."

More than 15 members of Congress are expected to attend, according to The Hill, including Democrat Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Jerry Nadler of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Sara Jacobs of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, and Julie Johnson of Texas.

"Trans Day of Visibility is a crucial event, especially in this political environment," Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality, a nonprofit that is acting as co-host to the March 31 event in D.C., told The Hill.

The event, created by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a Michigan-based trans rights advocate, in 2009, will also include rallies across the globe along with marches and educational events planned in the U.S. including in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Last year, Transgender Day of Visibility fell on Easter Sunday, and President Joe Biden came under intense criticism from Trump’s presidential campaign and conservatives for a proclamation calling "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."

Trump’s campaign accused Biden, a Roman Catholic, of being insensitive to religion, with Karoline Leavitt, at the time press secretary for Trump’s campaign and now the White House press secretary, assailing the Biden administration’s "years-long assault on the Christian faith."