This year’s Trans Day of Visibility was a ground for solidarity as Ruthie Wing proudly wore a shirt that said “Proud to be his Mother” with “his” being in bold font in the colors of the trans flag.
Her son Jermey Collins had a matching shirt that said, “this is what Trans looks like” with trans in the same color as “his” on Wing’s Shirt.
“He told me everything I didn’t know at the time,” Wing said.
Ruthie Wing had no prior knowledge of trans people before her son Jeremy Collins came out to her as a trans man in 2016. However, this did not stop her from instantly and continuing to be his #1 supporter while striving to learn more about the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.
“It’s a lot of self care to get your mind off it,” Collins said.
Specifically, meditation is a strategy Collins commonly employs in order to relieve some of the stress that comes with living in a transphobic society.
“They can use this as ammunition to attack us,” Alexa Ramriez, a Trans participant at the resource fair said.
The ammunition in question is the gender identity of a mass shooter who killed 6 people in Nashville Tennessee the week prior to the 31st being used to justify the continued discrimination of the Trans community.
On top of living in a society that doesn’t always accept Ramierz as she is, neither of her parents entirely supported her when she first discovered her identity at the age of 5.
“My mother wanted me to have a male puberty, while (my father), he tried to force his ways on me and I didnt stand for that,” Ramierz recounted.
In an effort to show support for the trans community on Trans Day of Visibility, APLA Health partnered with the LGBTQ+ Center of Long Beach to hold a resource fair from 2 to 6 p.m. on March 31 at Bixby Park in Long Beach
Trans Day of Visibility happens every March 31st as an annual event designed to celebrate the Transgender community as well as highlight the many struggles they face within an openly transphobic society.
This year’s trans day of visibility happened in the midst of a particularly hostile political climate.
This is evidenced by the over 400 pieces of U.S. legislation written to restrict the basic rights of trans introduced to the nation in 2023 alone.
The primary organizer for Friday’s resource fair was Melissa Marquette who is also the Trans Wellness Program Manager for APLA Health.
Marquette mentioned how even she is a little bit scared by the spike of anti-trans rhetoric rising in prominence within recent months.
APLA health is a non profit organization founded in the early 1980’s in order to help combat the AIDS epidemic which had an immense impact on the LGBTQ+ community at the time. They have since expanded to providing healthcare designed for the needs of the trans community.
“Queer people just finding services out of any authoritarian or typical path is already really intimidating and a lot of people have fears of discrimination so they don’t seek help,” Serena Serena Scott, Outreach and prevention coordinator and part of LGBTQIA+ Community Engagement, said in a follow up interview.
A non-exhaustive list of these services include HIV Testing, hormone therapy, along with referrals and references for surgeries regarding gender reassignment.
HIV testing was also being offered by Beinstar, the Center and The Long Beach health and human services Health Department. The Health Department took it a step further by providing pop up stations for Covid vaccinations, and Monkey Pox Vaccinations at the fair.
Unlike the other organizations offering testing, Beinstar had a specific focus on LGBTQ+ community members who may also be Latinx immigrants as they face different obstacles to access the same resources.
“It’s difficult due to language barriers and lack of papers,” Brenda Del Rio Gonzalez , the program Manager of Bienestar said.
On a more interpersonal health side of resources, Haven hills is a domestic violence shelter that has a specific department for LGBTQ+ members as over 50 percent of trans people report to have faced domestic violence over the course of their lifetime.