Under Saturday’s semi-cloudy skies, more than a hundred transgender activists and their allies gathered in the Tenderloin to remember slain community members and to call for action against the Trump Administration.
“It’s a rally for trans power and unity,” said Zander Moreno Lozano, a community organizer who represented the TurkxTaylor Initiative. “It’s also a memorial for Sam Nordquist, Tahiry Broom, Ra’Lasia Wright and Amyri Dior.”
Since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Jan. 20, his administration has launched a barrage of attacks against LGBTQ+ rights. These include ending federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary identities, barring transgender military members from service and eliminating protections that now permit the Department of Homeland Security to spy on LGBTQ+ individuals by removing sections that restrict intelligence gathering on certain groups.
Organizers set up a makeshift stage outside of Compton’s Cafeteria, the site of a riot led by transgender people and drag queens against the San Francisco Police Department in 1966 — two years before New York City’s Stonewall riots, which sparked the nationwide LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.
Community leaders gave speeches, led chants such as “We mourn, we fight, we rise up for trans rights,” read poetry and spread affirmations.
“This is not a time for disillusionment,” Marcus “Holy Old Man Bull” Arana said. “This is not a time to sit down. This is one of the most important inflection times in our history as trans people. So, what I want to say to you is hold onto your joy. Hold onto your artistry, your beauty, your love, your community.”
Violence against transgender men and women is nothing new, and is part of a wider epidemic of violence against LGBTQ+ Americans. Transgender and gender non-conforming people are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime, a UCLA Law School study found.
Killed transgender LGBTQ+ community members Sam Nordquist, Tahiry Broom, Ra’Lasia Wright and Amyri Dior were memorialized in an altar made at the rally. Nordquist made national headlines in February when his body was found in New York state after being tortured for months and subsequently murdered.
The Human Rights Campaign found that in nearly 40% of cases of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, no arrests are made.
After a few speeches, Lozano led the organization’s call to action to the local and state government.
“Trans liberation has always been led by the most impacted members of our community, not politicians or corporations, but us,” Lozano said.
Lozano mentioned the group’s list of demands included that the California State Assembly should vote no on AB 89, AB 844, AB 1464, AB 600 and AB 79. All of which target LGBTQ+, especially transgender, rights.
“By engaging in collective visioning, we ensure that our movement remains in grassroots leadership, direct action and community care,” Lozano said from the stage.
The organization also demanded that San Francisco’s Mayor Daniel Lurie publicly condemn the Trump Administration’s anti-transgender policies and commit to “legal action against discriminatory federal directives.” Furthermore, they demanded that California Gov. Gavin Newsom allocate emergency funding for those “affected by Project 2025,” a policy proposal list from the conservative Heritage Foundation. Although Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, his slew of executive orders closely resemble the policy suggestions in the document.
Zelle Farrell described being a transgender woman in America as feeling “overwhelming and at times hopeless,” but that did not stop her from coming to the day’s rally.
“I have been trying to avoid a lot of the news and a lot of the hard things that are happening lately,” Farrell said. “There isn’t any getting away from it. So, I decided to come out today with my friends to basically just be visible out here among the other trans people. They’re [TurkxTaylor] building solidarity leading up to the TDOV, which I think is an important goal.”
The Transgender Day of Visibility is an international day of recognition for transgender and gender non-conforming people celebrated on March 31.
Emma Guzman also came to the rally to feel the support of the transgender community and to give herself hope.
“Even if the world has abandoned us,” Guzman said. “That doesn’t mean that we have to abandon each other. At the end of the day, all we have is each other.”
The organizers said they were still in the planning stages of their next event.
“So, let’s be in this together,” Arana said, mic in hand. “Let’s do this together!”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to correct organizers’ affiliation with TurkxTaylor Initiative.
