Artigenda
Transgender Children Day
When: Annually, October 26.
National Transgender Children Day is een Amerikaans initiatief dat jaarlijks plaatsvindt op 26 oktober en niet gebonden hoeft te zijn aan de landsgrenzen van de Verenigde Staten. Vandaar dus de Transgender Children Day op 26 oktober.
Origin
In 2019, the first edition of National Transgender Children’s Day was organised after an idea by Jill Rubin. As a parent of a transgender child, she felt it had become time for a day of her own for transgender children and genderqueer children. There were special days and days of remembrance for the community as a whole. Not for children in particular.
At the time, Rubin’s biggest problem was how to organise everything without having start-up capital. So she started a campaign through GoFundMe. With that, she reached her goal. In the United States, the media wrote about it. The silence in Europe was deafening. By the way, in this article from 2017, you can read that Rubin was keen on Transgender Day of Remembrance by the way.
Purpose of the day
The day is there to honour children. To give them a heart-to-heart. To make them the centre of attention in a positive way for a day. Not in that negative way for once. In a humane way. So that maybe the day after, they will be treated in a way that is as humane as any other child. That the day and days after they are seen as “weird” or all that goes with it.
The idea is further to make people realise what it does to trans children. Not can do. Hate, discrimination and violence can’t do “anything”, it does. It just does.
Dangerous
It is not without reason that this day was chosen. Consider the situation in the world. In several countries, the situation can be described as serious, sometimes even downright dangerous. We are talking about policies implemented by various governments and what is directed against underage transgender people. These plans have been adopted in the form of laws or there are plans to adopt them. This legislation does not only affect transgender persons. It also affects non-binary persons and genderqueer persons. Minors too. In some cases, the legislation specifically targets minors.
Imagine, children are routinely targeted by people and groups. In (online) swearing and hate campaigns. Discrimination and exclusion lurk, as do verbal and physical violence. That is the reality. Then we are talking about transgender children. In this, it does not matter whether it is the United States or any other country. For example, the Netherlands.
It is special, we set boundaries when it comes to bullying. There is a national day against bullying in The Netherlands. This is a good initiative. At the same time, some people regularly rant against underage transgender people and their parents or guardians. When it comes to bullying behaviour based on gender identity, there seem to be no boundaries. There is just more than bullying. Policies and laws are not a form of bullying. That is based on a certain view and that is much more than bullying. That is a way of treating persons that do not fall under a humane way of how persons should be treated. These are all things that it’s okay to think about today as well.
That’s just not necessary…
Today in particular is there to make the children in question feel that good. If only to say today, “You’re valid!” That is a message that is not just limited to a day like today. Tomorrow or the day after that is a good time too.
The Netherlands
What about the entry on this website? This is not the original entry. That one appeared in 2023 on the website of De Goede Huisvader. The idea for a non-border day came from Harm Jagerman. It would then be a Dutch edition. Perhaps not only, as it could also be an international day. In any case, the day need not be limited to a country. The entry therefore appears on the website as Transgender Children Day.
