On Saturday, March 30th, a broad coalition consisting of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America, Lancaster Abolition Group, Lititz Chooses Love, and Starbucks Workers United, joined forces to host a Trans Day of Visibility rally at Penn Square in downtown Lancaster.
One of the aspects that stood out at this event was the fact that no politicians spoke and there was no police presence. It gave the rally an authentic feeling of community and solidarity that was felt by the nearly 200 people that attended it. The rally featured many trans and non-binary speakers and musicians as well as a clothing swap, and a trans resource table.
An Outpouring of Support Despite Threats
The event was held in spite of the events that occurred the prior week. The previous Saturday there was a drag queen story hour scheduled to take place at the Lancaster Public Library. Many conservatives, including GOP County Commissioner, Joshua Parsons and the Lancaster chapter of Moms For Liberty, were openly complaining online about the event.
The day of the story hour, there was a bomb threat near the library that forced the event to be canceled [1]. There was understandably a fair amount of concern about the safety of the Trans Day of Visibility rally. The event of the prior week seemed to motivate people to attend and prove that trans people are visible despite the culture war that is taking place [2].
Trans Visibility from Many Points of View
The speakers spoke on a very diverse variety of topics ranging from, unionizing to studying in a seminary to being in high school. Every speech was delivered from the lens of being trans in America.
One of the speakers, Sydny Mullany, spoke on behalf of Starbucks Workers United and the experience of being a trans Starbucks employee. “It was beautiful to see such an outpouring of support for this event.” said Sydny about the rally, “There was an extremely strong sense of community and it was good to talk about how to maintain that in queer spaces and how to create that in your workplace to fight for better conditions for everyone.”
Andy Tran, who spoke about their experience being a 2nd generation Vietnamese American said, “As I enter my second decade of living openly and visibly as my Viet nonbinary queer self, I felt very humbled to be able to represent and speak to my community, as well as hear the pragmatic and loving words of solidarity from others. I look forward to learning even more from and working with our Black, Brown, Indigenous, and otherwise multiply marginalized family.”
Conclusion
Organizers and attendees vowed to continue to stand up with each other and fight for a world we all deserve despite the fear mongering of conservative reactionaries. The event left many with a renewed sense of revolutionary optimism making concrete the slogan, the people united, will never be defeated!