“We’re being hit by the fire hose right in the face right now,” said Evan Greer, speaking at All Saints’ Church on Monday night to a crowd gathered for the Transgender Day of Visibility.
The Boston-based transgender singer, songwriter, activist, and writer spoke largely on the anti-LGBTQ legislation and sentiment around the country. Through a dynamic performance and discussion, Greer explained how transgender issues go beyond hormones and bathrooms to affordable housing, access to healthcare, availability of jobs and higher education opportunities.
“There’s a new fire popping up every single day, and we can’t fight them all individually,” Greer continued. “We have to recognize that all of these fires are connected.”
To ensure the safety and security of transgender people, communities need to band together, Greer said. For transgender people, residing in a socially and politically progressive state or city does not necessarily mean safety if they can’t afford housing.
“We’re safer in communities that hold each other up, where people know each other, and where we push back against … divisions and exploitative behavior,” Greer said.
The International Transgender Day of Visibility is a celebration of the lives and accomplishments of transgender individuals around the world. It was first established in 2009 by Michigan transgender activist Rachel Crandall Crocker.
The LGBTQ+ Alliance and Belmont Public Library co-sponsored Monday’s event. Sharon Rich, a member of the leadership team at the Alliance, said that the event is for kids in Belmont “so that when they walk through town, they feel like they are seen, they are included.”
Greer is also the director of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit organization working to create an internet that is more just and equitable, one that pushes back and serves as a tool rather than a surveilling device. For many, internet regulation means protecting kids online. It’s an urgent problem, but it has been co-opted by some people to try to implement what Fight for the Future calls “online book bans” of various materials, including LGBTQ works, Greer said.
“If you’re a trans kid in Arkansas, access to online community, access to online information about gender-affirming care … could be the difference between life and death,” she said.
Greer kicked off the evening with context about transgender visibility today. For many, the term is loaded, given the increased political attention focused on the transgender community.
“I woke up this morning feeling a little bit more like I needed a Trans Day of Go-Back-to-Bed,” she said.
This year, the celebration comes as Democratic leaders, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, join the growing debate surrounding transgender girls and women participating in sports and a flurry of anti-transgender laws sweep the nation. At the national level, the Trans Legislation Tracker follows 34 such bills impacting the presence of DEI initiatives on campus, restricting bathroom use to conform with one’s biological sex at birth, and more related to healthcare, education and service in the military. In Massachusetts, representatives introduced five anti-transgender bills in February of this year.
Coming from East Boston, Joanne Baranofsky said it was a “stretch” to get to Belmont, “but it was absolutely worth it.”
“I do think that a lot of the work is going to come from … allies, numbers-wise, but also just those are the people who are going to be able to talk to other people,” Baranofsky said about the power of cisgender and transgender solidarity.
Greer wove her original songs, including “ The Tyranny of Either/Or” and “ Surveillance Capitalism,” into the night’s presentation. She also performed Ralph Chaplin’s union song “Solidarity Forever” and rounded out the night with a rendition of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.”
“This goes out to the spaces where queer and trans people can gather and not just feel safe, but feel elated,” Greer said.
Later this spring, on May 31, the Alliance plans to host a Pride parade to welcome in Pride month. The group also has “Belmont Welcomes” yard signs available on their website.
