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I’m Jewish and trans.

Celebrating Trans visibility today feels hard when trans people’s freedoms are under attack.

But Passover starts this week, which also has me thinking about freedom — and the story of our people’s Exodus from Egypt — Mitzrayim.

Mitzrayim literally means “the narrow place.” A place so constricted, it was hard to imagine a better world outside. But there was somewhere better when they left Mitzrayim behind.

On Trans Day of Visibility, here are two “narrow places” I’m thinking about..and how we can leave them behind.

First, there’s the narrow way of thinking that attacks on trans rights only affect trans people. And conversely, that protecting trans rights only protects trans people.

When politicians target trans people, the goal isn’t just to take away trans freedoms. It’s to take away everyone’s freedoms — and dismantle our democracy. You even can see this explicitly when they connect anti-trans policies to their plans to silence millions of voters through draconian ID laws.

Why do politicians scapegoat the trans community? Because many people are willing to give their rights away when they think they themselves won’t be affected — especially if people think the impact will only be to people they don’t understand or are afraid of.

But that’s narrow-place thinking.

When they push policies that harm trans people — just like when they scapegoat and target immigrant communities or use “fighting antisemitism” as a smokescreen for attacking free speech — they are using fear and division and rallying their base to move their authoritarian agenda. And that endangers all of us.

So let’s leave behind the narrow place where we can’t see that protecting trans rights — and rights for the most marginalized people — means protecting all of our rights and our voices.

And on Trans Day of Visibility, I want to celebrate leaving behind another narrow place: gender.

For many, gender is a place that confines the expansiveness and possibility of our identities to restrictive boxes and labels. It’s a narrow place that doesn’t allow everyone to be free and thrive.

Trans Day of Visibility — and celebrating our very existence in the world — means leaving that narrow place. When we’re visible, it inspires others who have felt trapped there to find their freedom and be their full, true selves.

When our ancestors were in Mitzrayim, some were afraid to leave because it was all they knew. It felt impossible to dream of something even better.

This Passover, I want to invite us all, if you’re transgender or cisgender or Jewish or not Jewish, to seek freedom from our own narrow places.

What else is possible? What else is out there? What else can we imagine in a better future and better country?

Happy trans day of visibility. Chag Pesach Sameach. And though we are still on our journey to liberation in this country, may we celebrate freedom, visibility, and the possibilities that lay ahead. Together.

Enzi Tanner 
Training and Content Manager, Bend the Arc