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A Guide to Transgender Day of Visibility

A Guide to Transgender Day of Visibility originally developed by Natasha Verdugo (they-them) at LibGuides, San Jose State University School of Information

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About the Guide 💁🏽

Image of an alternate trans pride flag with brighter blue and pink stripes and a white stripe in the center.This guide acts as a readers' advisory and provides a variety of resources to assist both trans-identifying and trans allies in celebrating International Transgender Day of Visibility. 

This guide is currently* divided into 7 Sections:

Home Learn about the basics of Trans Day of Visibility and why representation matters. 

The following books sections contain books, fiction and non-fiction, in the USD eco-system or not, featuring transgender characters or written by transgender authors or cis gender allies. It consists of five pages: books available through your USD credentials, adult, young adult, middle children's and children's books, allowing you to browse by age. It also allows you to browse by genre, fiction (contemporary or fantasy), or non-fiction.

Books at USD 

Adult Books

Young Adult Books

Middle Children's Books (I accidentally deleted this and will bring it back! My apologies.)

Children's Books 

Next, we have visual media, Movies and Television, and soon to come, YouTube Videos made by trans creators. Surely TikTok videos are right around the corner, too. These pages are or will be organized by rating.

Movies Contains films featuring transgender characters. Organized by film rating; these ratings include PG-13, TV-MA, R, and not rated.

TV Contains TV shows featuring transgender characters or written and/or directed by a transgender auteur.  Organized by TV rating; these ratings include TV-G, TV-Y7-FV, TV-14, and TV-MA.

YouTube This section is coming soon!

*check back for content updates

What is Trans Day of Visibility? 👓

International Transgender Day of Visibility is celebrated each year on March 31st. This day is observed both by the transgender community and its supporters in celebration of transgender individuals, history, and progress. The day also marks as an awareness campaign against the discrimination of transgender people across the globe by bringing us visibly forward to foster change and acceptance for the human beings we are.

Over the last 18 months, over 400 pieces of legislation have been introduced and are currently being considered and voted upon in legislative bodies all across the United States. They are based on fear, deceit, and the vilification of transgender youth and adults. They look to strip parents and doctors of their right to access and provide healthcare, just like they are doing with a women's right to choose medical abortion. 

If you know a transgender person, reach out to them and let them know they are seen for who they are, not as they are demonized to be. Show your support and speak out, for us all, because trans rights are human rights. 

Representation Matters! 📜

In its examination of transgender representation on Television, the organization GLAAD found that since 2002, 102 episodes of scripted television featured trans characters and/or storylines. Of those 102 episodes, 54% were categorized as containing negative representations, 35% were categorized as problematic and a mere 12% were categorized as groundbreaking or accurate trans representation (Victims or Villains, n.d.). 

The GLAAD examination also found that 40% of transgender characters were cast in a victim role and 21% were cast as killers or villains. In terms of profession, 20% of transgender characters were given the role of sex worker. In regards to language, 62% of the episodes cataloged featured anti-transgender slurs, language, and dialogue. 

In GLAADs 17th annual report, Where We Are On Tv, which tracked representation from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2022, they found that there were 42 regular/recurring trans characters across broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms. Of those 42 characters, 20 are trans women, 14 are trans men and 8 are non-binary trans (Gardner, 2022). 

References

Gardner, C. (February 17, 2022). GLAAD: Broadcast TV now features a record number of LGBTQ characters. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/lgbtq-tv-characters-glaad-report-2022-1235094632/

Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television. (n.d.). GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/publications/victims-or-villains-examining-ten-years-transgender-images-television

Books at USD

Books at USD

Adult Books

Adult Fantasy

Adult Fiction

Non-Fiction

Young Adult Books

Young Adult Contemporary

Young Adult Fantasy

Young Adult Non-Fiction

Children's Books

Children's Fiction

Movies

Rated PG-13

Rated TV-MA

Filmes Rated R

Films Not Rated

TV

Rated TV-G

Rated TV-Y7-FV

Rated TV-14

Rated TV-MA

YouTube Videos

About the YouTube section

While we recognize the intersectionality of the categories below and that truly, we all do all of them at any given time as marginalized people, this section will highlight the focus of the YouTube creator as it is understood by the creators of this LibGuide. Please feel free to let us know what we've missed, what we got right, and, everything in between. Respect.

Those who share their journey transitioning

Those who help us think

Those who fight the good fight

Those who help us laugh