OTD Chile commemorates Trans Visibility Day

Organizando Trans Diversidades commemorated this year the day of trans visibility, which is remembered every March 31 in the world, with a cultural activity in the Library of Santiago and extending the trans flag in the front of the Central House of the University of Chile.

On March 26 at the Santiago Library, OTD Chile invited the entire community and its allies to participate in the activity “Write to exist”, a reading of poetry and texts by trans people in which they reflected on the importance of becoming visible. Christiana Fe Clara, Luka Suban and Gabriel Castillo exhibited on the occasion, which attracted some twenty attendees.

“It seems to me that it is important to call on trans people to listen to each other and make way by sharing our experiences, connecting a little beyond what society really allows us, telling and opening important experiences for each other’s lives,” Christiana said.

The Santiago Library also joined the raising of the trans flag in its building next to the Universidad de Chile headquarters, where we displayed the trans flag of the organization that measures 16 x 8 meters, from Friday 29 to Monday 1 April. This was made possible by the Vice-Rectory of Extension and Communications and the communications area of the Association.

Never before has a public building, so important and central to the capital, made such a gesture to the country’s trans community. For the same reason, a photo session was called last Saturday, March 30, an activity that was suspended because at that time an anti-abortion demonstration was taking place.

“We are happy to open paths with allied public institutions that have taken concrete actions to respect trans people. The University was one of the first to recognize the social name of its trans students, as was the Library with its users. We thank them and value their work and commitment. Unfortunately, this was tarnished by what happened on Saturday, but at the same time gives us the possibility to see and learn that religious fundamentalisms and hate speeches are closer than we think,” said the executive coordinator, Michel Riquelme.

Visibility Day

Since 2009 we celebrate this day to make ourselves visible and to denounce the discrimination and violence that our population lives in the world. Why is it important? Being trans in a world marked by gender binarism (allowing the existence only of women with vaginas and men with penises) has generated the historical exclusion of the trans community. You may not know that many people must live by a name that they do not identify with without being able to work or study, that many children or adolescents do not have the opportunity to express themselves out of fear and end up committing suicide, that Latin America is the place in the world where trans people are killed the most, that cisgender people have free access to health benefits that transgender people do not, that most state institutions refuse to recognize the existence of trans people, and so on. Being trans is not a choice, we are part of human diversity and we cannot be denied our human rights.

Translated by: Camila Mella