Yesterday was International Transgender Day of Visibility. I've had some concern with the existence of a single day for that. I pretty much try to make transgender issues and/or people visible every day.

In honor of the event, there were some special presentations.

In the UK, the beautiful people put together a video.

The video was produced by Jake Graf of the Danish Girl and features model Laith Ashley, blogger Evie Andrew, YouTube veteran Kieran Maloney, DJ/model Munroe Bergdorf and British Army Officer Captain Hannah Winterbourne:

Additionally, Doctor Who's Bethany Black did an interview with the Independent

But it wasn’t until she was handpicked for Doctor Who that she really knew she’d made it. Having once watched the show religiously as a child, she then became the first openly trans actor to be featured on the programme which has since gone on to amass 77 million viewers worldwide. Starring in a non-transgender role, as 474, in November of last year, she was in the ninth episode of the ninth season.

That episode has been shown in countries where people like me are illegal which is mind-blowing,

--Black

Arthur Chu at Salon examines the cost of that visibility.

I was surprised when one of my close friends, who is trans and who hadn’t heard of the holiday, responded with a scowl when I told her about it.

My goal isn’t visibility, my goal is survival. The Jews were extremely visible in 1930s Europe, how much good did it do them?

--Arthur's close friend

Since then I’ve been thinking about the relative shallowness of “visibility” as a goal in and of itself, especially since the past two years have been one long performative celebration of trans visibility.

--Chu

Ever since Time ran its famous May 2014 cover of Laverne Cox with the optimistic title “The Transgender Tipping Point,” everything’s been looking up for trans people, right?

Well, no.

--Chu

The progression from visibility to tolerance to acceptance within the LGBT coalition has infamously been uneven between the LGB side and the T side. If one were to try to make a parallel (an extremely imperfect one) with Time’s “Transgender Tipping Point” with Laverne Cox and an earlier moment in queer history, it’d probably be something like Ellen DeGeneres and her character both coming out on Ellen in 1997 (a moment pivotal enough that there’s a website named for it).

Did the dramatic moment of a well known entertainer proudly coming out as gay on TV, with widespread support from the media and the industry, end the oppressive invisibility of gay people? Did it, as Dan Savage put it, get better?

Sure, absolutely, in the long run. But then I tend to agree with Martin Luther King that given a long enough run, yes, things get better–but what happens while we’re waiting for that long run is a much more complicated story.

--Chu

Yeah, the 2000s were a period of progress where things gradually got better for LGBT people, but they were also a time of backlash–where every visible step forward was met with sustained, concentrated and vicious opposition from the Right and mealy-mouthed second-guessing about moving too fast from the Left. I remember vividly how hard and how often LGBT activists were thrown under the bus by liberals after 2004, and can only imagine how frustrating it was to be in their shoes at that time. “Visibility,” in that context, did them no favors.

--Chu

s the situation right now with trans people and “bathroom bills” comparable? Well, no, it’s actually a great deal worse.

This year, the RNC specifically outlined turning trans people into a “wedge” issue as a central strategy for the 2016 election. In February, when people were focused on the South Carolina primary, the RNC quietly passed a resolution calling for support for “bathroom bills” refusing public accommodation for trans people and backing the absurdly onerous restriction that in order to be guaranteed the right to use a restroom you must have documentary evidence of your XX or XY chromosome status (read the resolution here). Now, the state of North Carolina has just passed a sweeping law preventing trans people from using the “wrong” restroom in all public spaces, with others following close on its heels.

--Chu

The point is, of course, to turn this country into one of those countries where being transgender is illegal that Ms. Black mentioned.

It’s always been dangerous for trans people to use the “wrong” bathroom–a situation fraught with the threat of violence that Caitlyn Jenner is unlikely to experience and that cis actors who get paid to pretend to be trans, like Eddie Redmayne and Jeffrey Tambor, will never experience. But it’s fair to say that right now, with attention focused on the issue due to bathroom bills, the threat level is elevated. In Kansas a law has been proposed to, essentially, force schools to pay a $2,500 bounty to students who discover people using the “wrong” bathrooms and turn them in.

That’s the kind of escalation “visibility” brings you. I put “visibility” in quotes because, well, it’s really a combination of visibility and invisibility–the hostility and the backlash comes from the visibility of celebrated public figures in the media, from the Netflix series and Time magazine covers and Oscar-nominated films conservatives love to complain are being “shoved down their throats.”

But the reason that visibility is pernicious is how quickly we liberal allies stop paying attention once the exciting feel-good moment is over. I love Laverne Cox’s character on “Orange is the New Black”–but I confess my interest in the show as a work of art hasn’t translated into my being aware of the real-life plight of incarcerated trans people as I should be. Caitlyn Jenner, as a wealthy celebrity trans woman, wrestles with her feelings being yelled at by trans activists on TV while the vast majority of trans people in this country who are not Olympic gold medalists or reality TV celebrities struggle to stay employed or, in some cases, to keep a roof over their heads.

--Chu

This kind of visibility–trans people being seen as a target, a symbol, a topic of controversy, a good juicy “theme” to make a movie about, without any follow-through when it comes to real-life poiltical support? That’s the worst of both worlds. It’s starting a fight on someone’s behalf, then ducking away once the fight begins in earnest.

I’m personally ashamed that I, like a lot of other people, lost track of the “secondary” issue of bathroom bills and public discrimination against trans citizens while arguing about other things this political season–all while the Republicans were busy making that “secondary” issue into a primary issue to energize their base.

--Chu