March 31 Is a Day To Celebrate Trans Folks. Let’s Write About Visibility!

A Prism & Pen writers prompt

8 min readMar 24, 2025

Susan Crocker (L) with her wife Rachel Crandall Crocker at the 2023 Pride Festival in Ferndale, Michigan. Rachel founded the community organization *and launched* . Photo courtesy .

How did I NOT hear about the first Transgender Day of Visibility?

What was I doing on March 31, 2009? I wasn’t observing the first International Transgender Day of Visibility. Back in the U.S. after years in Quebec raising a foster kid with my gay partner, I was writing novels, living a Bohemian lifestyle in a Detroit neighborhood not at all dangerous like my White friends and family warned. If the day was sunny, I was likely on my porch clacking away on my laptop, waving at neighbors if they strolled by.

If I was thinking about queer issues at all, I was developing characters for what became a novel about a gay Air Force officer befriending and falling in love with the son of a Soviet general.

Today, I’m struck by what I did NOT write in that novel.

I worked super hard to fully flesh out a Black character, phoning and interviewing Black friends I served with. Heck, I did the same for settings, spending hours talking to a friend from Malta to make sure I got details right in 12 little paragraphs.

But not a single transgender person appears in my novel.

I wrote not one single idea about gender, even though I dedicated whole chapters to philosophies of human fulfillment ideally suited to affirming and celebrating queerness and transness. Maybe I didn’t include trans characters in my novel because I never met any trans people in the Air Force? Well, as soon as I left the Air Force and moved to Manhattan, I made many trans friends. So?

I think the real reason is simpler. In 2009, I was living in a world I presumed was super queer friendly and would grow inevitably more friendly. I was living in the Land of Oz, with no notion that before 7 years passed, a cyclone would roar to life and threaten to whirl us all back to Kansas.

I forgot the NEED for visibility and inclusivity, but even as I blithely clacked, (a trans woman in my own state!) created and announced the first . She even convinced President Obama and Vice President Biden to acknowledge the day!

Let’s Write About Visibility!

You might be familiar with Transgender Day of Remembrance, held every year since 1999 to honor murdered trans people. This is different. Rachel started International Transgender Day of Visibility to celebrate trans people — honor their accomplishments or just their simple joys.

Trans folks have become the whipping girls and boys of the folks behind the cyclone. Black people, immigrants, and women certainly have too! Trans people are being attacked in irrational, hateful ways that defy sense and ordinary human empathy, painted as dangerous criminals and even drummed out of the U.S. military without pensions.

So let’s tell REAL TRANS STORIES to counter the hate-driven propaganda.

Let’s celebrate real trans people.

Remember last year when religious people pretended to be outraged that Trans Day of Visibility coincided by coincidence with Easter? They don’t have that excuse to hate this year. So let’s tell our stories and shine some bright lights! (We would anyway.)

March 31 Is a Day To Celebrate Trans Folks. Let’s Write About Visibility!

That’s our new Prism & Pen writing prompt for at least the next two weeks. It’s time to tell our stories!

If you write for Prism & Pen already or you’ve ever wanted to, we want to hear your thoughts on visibility. Many trans people aren’t safe enough to be visible, by the way. Visibility isn’t something to urge on people, so please don’t take this prompt to mean that. In fact, if you want to write a story about the dangers of visibility, that’s fine!

Want to write about the intersection of trans, Black, immigrant, gay, etc identities? By all means!

Friends, family members, allies — we want to hear from you too.

Quills out, editorial support available! Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, P&P editors can help you make your story look sharp and professional.

For everyone, please remember that our prompts are meant to inspire rather than restrict. Whatever you’d like to write about visibility, P&P is here to help you find an audience.

Of course, you don’t have to submit stories based on our prompts. You can submit stories about anything in the LGBTQ universe, whenever you like. Please do!

Prism & Pen

March 31 Is a Day To Celebrate Trans Folks. Let’s Write About Visibility!

A Prism & Pen writers prompt

How did I NOT hear about the first Transgender Day of Visibility?

Let’s Write About Visibility!

March 31 Is a Day To Celebrate Trans Folks. Let’s Write About Visibility!

You tell your stories, we’ll help you share them.

New Prism & Pen Submission Guidelines

Last updated April 25, 2024

Published in Prism & Pen

Written by James Finn

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