Shabbat Pekudei - Shabbat Hachodesh - Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat, 2025
“We have to fight every step of the way, even if it seems small in comparison. What it does is it buys us more time. It allows us to file these lawsuits, and it allows us to win. But at School Board hearings, Community Board hearings, civil suits and more trans people are under attack, but our allies and our community, we’re testifying. We’re stepping up in these settings, and we are letting people know our humanity, our love, our reason to live. We ask all of our allies to step up and get involved in this manner, the trans community is in the cross hairs because they think we’re tiny, because they think we don’t exist, because they think we’re already invisible. What difference does it make to turn them invisible if they already are but when we mobilize our resistance, it rebuffs this central premise, they can’t demonize us and ostracize us anymore when you stand next to us, because they can’t demonize and ostracize us all. We’re proving them wrong every day. We’re making progress every day in courts and schools and legislatures and more, and you can and should get involved too. You can testify for trans rights. You can fundraise, or you can donate to fund this work as well. Remember that our opposition consists of some of the wealthiest men on the planet. Our opposition is extremely well funded. You can sign up to be a volunteer and put in shifts that make a real change in our lives.
And don’t get me wrong, I want to leave you with the message that, yes, things are very bad, but there is something to be done. And at the same time, it’s not time to take a victory lap. It is a battle with two sides, but our side is growing. Our side is rooted in humanity, in community, in truth, in science, in love. Trans life is beautiful. It’s full of hope, it’s full of smiles, it’s full of laughter, and no matter what they do, we’ll always be here, trans and non binary-hood, personhood has existed for 1000s of years. Gender deviance is a core part of humanity, and so I will just leave you all with the message that the reality of our existence springs from the ground just like a rose every single spring. They can’t stop that from happening. They can cut down one or two or 100 roses, but they’ll never stop the coming of spring, and we are the spring. Our movement is the spring, and our resistance can be expected just like the spring.”
Guest Speaker Victoria Foster gave these remarks on Friday, March 28, 2025 / 29 Adar 5785. Watch the full talk above.
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