Annual marches, protests or gatherings take place around the world for

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

issues, often taking place during the time of local

Pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events som ...

s for

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people. These events are frequently organized by trans communities to build community, address human rights struggles, and create visibility.

ExisTransInter March Paris

Created in 1997 and held each year since 2002 is the Existrans march in Paris. Since 2007 the March also includes intersex demands. The current name of the ExisTransInter is "ExisTransInter, la marche des personnes trans et intersexes et de celles qui les soutiennent" ("ExisTransInter, the March of the trans and intersex persons and those who support them").

San Francisco Trans March

The San Francisco Trans March is an annual gathering and

protest march A political demonstration is an action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern; it often consists of walking in a mass march formati ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, that takes place on the Friday night of Pride weekend, the last weekend of June. It is a

trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (fil ...

and gender non-conforming and inclusive event in the same spirit of the original

gay pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events so ...

s and dyke marches. It is one of the few large annual transgender events in the world and has likely been the largest transgender event since its inception in June 2004.Trans March on Friday
Rob Akers 6/22/2006. ''Bay Area Reporter''. The purpose of the event is to increase visibility,

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and acceptance of all

gender-variant Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...

people. The event became the fourth main LGBT Pride event in San Francisco; all of which are inclusive and ask for donations instead of requiring paid admission; San Francisco Pride (SF Pride), with a festival on Saturday, parade and festival Sunday; San Francisco Dyke March on Saturday afternoon and march in the evening; and

Pink Saturday Pink Saturday is a street party held the Saturday night before San Francisco Pride (Gay Pride Day) in San Francisco's Castro district. It coincides with the annual Dyke March in San Francisco. Attendees are asked to donate money at the gate. Ga ...

, which is an evening street party in the

Castro District The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

Saturday evening run by the

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI) is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirizes issue ...

. SF Pride, and the organizers of the other much larger events, all participated in supporting the event since its inception with funds, material and technical support. In recent years, the event has begun at

Mission Dolores Park Mission Dolores Park, often abbreviated to Dolores Park, is a city park in San Francisco, California. It is located two blocks south of Mission Dolores at the western edge of the Mission District. Dolores Park is bounded by 18th Street on the nort ...

(the same staging and performance area as the Dyke March), and has ended in the Tenderloin, near the location of the

Compton's Cafeteria Riot The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of drag queens and trans people, particularly trans women. The incident was o ...

History

An anonymous

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

was widely distributed to

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

's activist and transgender communities in March 2004. It coincided with the first trial in the murder of East Bay trans woman

Gwen Araujo Gwen Amber Rose Araujo (February 24, 1985 – October 4, 2002) was an American trans teenager who was murdered in Newark, California at the age of 17. She was murdered by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat a ...

and called for a Trans March helping launch "the largest transgender event of its kind."Trans March kicks off Pride weekend
Vickie Martin, June 2006, ''Bay Area Reporter''. Araujo's murder by four men and their disposing of her body heightened awareness of

violence against LGBT people Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people frequently experience violence directed toward their sexuality, gender identity, or gender expression. This violence may be enacted by the state, as in laws prescribing punishment for hom ...

and especially

trans women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...

and

trans men A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that inclu ...

. Araujo's related case and appeals lasted for over two years. The first several Trans Marches ended with a rally including a trans altar remembering her and many other trans people also killed. Attendance in 2004 was estimated at 2,000; it doubled to 4,000 the following year. In 2008

Donna Rose Donna Rose (born 5 June 1991) is a Welsh Rugby Union player who plays prop for the Wales women's national rugby union team and Saracens. She made her debut for the Wales national squad in 2021 and represented them at the 2021 Women's Six Nations Cha ...

, who had resigned from national

advocacy group

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for ...

after the organization supported a version of the

Employment Non-Discrimination Act The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is legislation proposed in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or, depending on the version of the bill, gender ...

that did not include

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...

, was one of many featured speakers. The theme of 2008 was "Marching for a Gender Inclusive ENDA and removal of Gender Identity 'Disorder' (GID) as a mental illness."Trans March rallies around inclusion
Zak Szymanski, 07/03/2008. ''Bay Area Reporter''. Activist Arianna Davis stated to the crowd, "We are mocked by medicine and belittled by the media ... I don't have a mental disorder – do you?" She implored the crowd to "demand that GID be removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)." Protesters also objected to the current workgroup appointed by the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are invo ...

to revise the gender and sexuality sections of the DSM as it included

Kenneth Zucker Kenneth J. Zucker (; born 1950) is an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist. He was named editor-in-chief of ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' in 2001. He was psychologist-in-chief at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH ...

, "known for his gender-conforming therapies in children", and

Ray Blanchard Ray Milton Blanchard ( ; born October 9, 1945) is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on transsexualism, pedophilia and sexual orientation. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay th ...

, whose theory of

autogynephilia Blanchard's transsexualism typology is a proposed psychological typology of gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and fetishistic transvestism, created by sexologist Ray Blanchard through the 1980s and 1990s, building on the work of prior researchers, ...

"claims that some people transition because they are aroused by female clothing." Attendance of the march, which grew in diversity, was estimated at 10,000. In 2009 the now ten-person coordinating committee elected to forgo the Castro

gay neighborhood A gay village is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establish ...

and instead march through the predominantly Latino Mission District.Changes afoot for SF Pride events: Trans March
Matthew S. Bajko, 25 June 2009. ''Bay Area Reporter''. They cited several reasons: for one, many transgender people lived in the neighborhood, unable to afford the pricier Castro; organizer Fresh White noted the need to heighten transgender visibility because of the "tremendous amount of violence that happens" to transgender people in the neighborhood; finally, the area also had a lot of residents who voted for

Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned in cou ...

, the Californian legislation the changed the state constitution to limit marriage rights to only

gender binary The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) is the classification of gender into two distinct, opposite forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. Most cultures use a gender binary ...

male-female couples. Organizers expected 10,000 attendees and the event to cost $10,000 much of it raised through sponsorships and fundraisers.

Cecilia Chung Cecilia Chung ( zh, 鍾紹琪) is a civil rights leader and activist for LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS awareness, health advocacy, and social justice. She is a trans woman, and her life story was one of four main storylines in the 2017 ABC miniseries ''Wh ...

, a trans woman and the chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, was the keynote speaker. In 2015,

Ryan Cassata Ryan Otto Cassata (born December 13, 1993) is an American musician, public speaker, writer, filmmaker, and actor. Cassata speaks at high schools and universities on the subject of gender dysphoria, being transgender, bullying and his personal tr ...

was the headlining musician and TAJA's Coalition was the headlining speaker.

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pr ...

also spoke briefly. An estimated 10,000 - 20,000 people marched from Mission Dolores Park to UN Plaza. The Civic Center was lit up in the colors of the

transgender pride flag The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and in ...

. In 2016, attendees expressed anger at local politicians who attempted to speak at the event. At the conclusion of the march, a new street sign was unveiled, renaming the 100 block of Taylor Street to Gene Compton's Cafeteria Way in honor of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot. In 2017, the march concluded with an announcement that the area at Turk and Taylor in the Tenderloin had been designated a Transgender Cultural District by the City of San Francisco. In 2019, San Francisco Mayor

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who is the 45th and current mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Board ...

held a press conference with the Office of Transgender Initiatives prior to the march. Breed declared June 28, 2019 - the day of that year's Trans March and the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of ...

- to be "Trans March Day", and announced a housing program for trans residents.

Toronto Trans March

The Toronto Trans March was founded in 2009 by Karah Mathiason and typically takes place on the Friday of Toronto

Pride Week LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sh ...

. The trans community in Toronto had seen resistance to the idea of a trans march for years, and in 2009 Karah Mathiason decided to create the march for herself. In 2009,

Toronto Pride Pride Toronto is an annual event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June each year. A celebration of the diversity of the LGBT community in the Greater Toronto Area, it is one of the largest organized gay pride festivals in the world, fea ...

attempted to confine the newly formed Trans March to the sidewalks of Church Street up to Wellesley Street. Instead, participants took to the streets and marched past the barriers on Wellesley Street. Since 2009, Toronto Pride has consistently stood in the way of the Trans March, often trying to confine it to minuscule portion of Church Street while the Toronto Dyke March and Toronto Pride Parade march down

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial H ...

. In 2012, Toronto Pride attempted to restrict the Trans March from Norman Jewison Park down Church Street where vending booths were set up and pedestrians were still walking around the street. The "official" march received relatively little attention and occurred amidst oblivious pedestrians until it finally reached Wood Street. Upon arriving at Wood Street, marchers who were aware of alternative plans split off and marched down Yonge Street to Dundas Avenue. In 2013, Toronto Pride again attempted to mislead marchers, but this time activists prevailed. The Toronto Trans March began at Norman Jewison Park and marched down Yonge Street to Allan Gardens on Sherbourne and Carlton. It was the largest unified Trans March that has occurred in Toronto to date. Between 1000 and 2000 people are believed to have marched in the Toronto Trans March 2013.

Community Conflicts

During the organisation of the Toronto Trans March 2013, a conflict occurred following a decision made during one organising meeting to accept a request by the LGBT Consultative Committee of the Toronto Police Services to march in the Trans March. Many in the community objected to a police contingent of the march, because they felt that it disregarded the ongoing reality of police brutality and harassment against trans people in Toronto. In the end, a community letter was presented to the LGBT Consultative Committee and the contingent did not march.

Other cities

In 2007 a Trans March started in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, the first Philly Trans March was held in 2010. In

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the first Trans Pride march was held on 14 September 2019. In Japan, the first Trans March was held in

Shinjuku, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

by Transgender Japan (TGJP) on 20 November 2021. About 500 people participated. The second Trans March is planned to be held on 12 November 2022.

References

External links

San Francisco Trans March
{{Transgender topics International observances LGBT civil rights demonstrations LGBT culture in San Francisco Pride parades in the United States Transgender events Transgender organizations in the United States fr