Yesterday, March 31, saw two important occasions, with International Transgender Day of Visibility falling on the same Sunday as Mother’s Day in the UK and Ireland – but trans individuals, advocacy organisations and allies raised their voices in the thousands to make sure the trans community were not overshadowed.

Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) wrote “This year Trans Day of Visibility coincides with Mother’s Day and we want to spend some time celebrating these occasions. Today we will be sharing moments that capture the importance of both.”

And TENI delivered – among the organisation’s posts yesterday afternoon was a photo of TENI Chair Sara R Phillips with her mother, Evelyn, and her daughter, Laura. TENI wrote “Last year our friend and Chair Sara R Phillips led @DublinPride parade with 60,000 people in tow and crowds more on the streets. You can’t get much more visible than that!”

TENI also shared photos of Irishwoman Catherine Cross with her trans son Lucas. “We love these pics from @CatherineCross3 with son Lucas and their family photo,” they wrote. “It doesn’t matter what generation you are from, you can be a true trans ally at any age.”

Among countless other social media posts using the hashtag #TransDayofVisibility was one by Christina Grimwade, a trans mother from Essex, who shared a picture of herself with her son. She wrote “Here I am being visible on #TDOV. Being a mum to my kids on #MothersDay. Hopefully I’m the positive role model I didn’t have for at least one trans person that sees me today.”

https://twitter.com/Chr1stinaG/status/1112301575727394816

UK-based LGBT+ charity Stonewall shared a blog post by LGBT+ activist and former secondary school teacher Carolyn Mercer, who highlighted the ongoing attacks on trans identities and called on allies to “read about trans people’s experiences, challenge transphobia when you hear it and show support to your trans friends and families.”

Happy #TransDayOfVisibility! To all our trans friends and family: you are valuable, valid and important, whether you choose to be seen or not, on this day and every day https://t.co/NwJV68g77s #TDOV #WithTheT pic.twitter.com/fqM1dp06Gg

— Stonewall (@stonewalluk) March 31, 2019

Meanwhile, Amazon Alexa came out in support of Trans Day of Visibility with its  #VoiceofTrans campaign, led by Brand Advance and Global Butterflies, which ran from March 28 to 31. The campaign allowed users to hear the voice and life story of a transgender man by asking “Alexa, open the voice of trans,” on any device. In response to the command, Alexa would take on the voice of a trans man speaking about his experiences, charting everything from school to his transition and relationships.

Emma Cusdin of Global Butterflies said “We hope that people who interact with this campaign will understand that gender is not binary but a broad spectrum and that trans people use wonderful ways to describe their gender which should be celebrated.”