Transgender Day of Visibility
Every year on the 31st March, since 2009, transgender people celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility. You may have also heard of Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is held annually on the 20th November, to remember transgender people who have lost their lives as a result of anti-transgender violence. However, International Transgender Day of Visibility differs in that it aims to empower and honour the lives of transgender and non-binary people.
Crimes against transgender people have risen by an alarming 25% in the last two years in the UK, according to a report by the BBC. Therefore, it has never been more important to show support towards transgender and gender non-conforming people. Awareness of transgender and non-binary people’s issues are beginning to improve, and their representations in media are slowly but steadily increasing. One recent positive example is that a transgender woman was cast in The Queen’s Gambit, which was shown at the latter end of 2020 on Netflix. Rather than the transgender actress, Rebecca Root, being cast to play a person that was transgender, she was simply cast as a transgender person playing the role of the choir teacher.
Another way in which this awareness surfaces is through reading books that depict the experiences of transgender people. Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Torrey Peter’s Detransition Baby (2021) is a recent publication that explores the life of a transgender couple, Amy and Reese. Detransition Baby aims to investigate issues pertaining to motherhood and parenthood. After Amy (a transgender woman) is attacked in the street, she decides to transition back to a cisgender man, named Ames. Believing he was infertile, Ames then starts an affair with his boss Katrina. However, after Katrina gets pregnant with Ames’ baby, he of course discovers that this is not the case. The novel asks how all three characters — Ames, Reese and Katrina — can raise the baby successfully.
Living in an era where blended families are the norm — and the nuclear is no longer the dominant form — this arguably controversial novel asks important questions about what it means to be a parent, and a family. Have you read it? Let us know your thoughts.
If you’re interested in reading other novels which document transgender experiences, you can find a link to them here.