This Trans Day of Visibility - which is all about celebrating transgender people and the trans community while also raising awareness for the issues and discrimination trans people still face worldwide - we're celebrating trans joy. So often the narratives we see about being trans focus on shame, fear and violence. These are all very real things that trans people experience, but the trans experience is so much more than that.
So, to celebrate TDoV, we spoke to 11 transgender people from across the UK and beyond about trans joy, what they wish they knew when they were younger, and their advice for younger trans people. Watch the full video above.
"I just don't want to fit into a box. I make my own boxes!" says Megan Key, trustee at London LGBTQ Centre. "There's so much to love about being trans."
For Ellis Johnson, a psychotherapeutic counsellor at Trans Counselling, being trans "is a real privilege".
Black Trans Foundation's administrative director Azekel thinks of being trans as a superpower. "Trans joy means living in my truth and accepting myself, and not letting anyone tell me who I am," they say.
"I love the community that comes with it. I just think it's beautiful to be a part of a movement and a community that has resistance, liberation, joy and magic at its core."
"I just find everything about my life after transition to be an absolute joy to be honest. Most people assume that being trans is a burden. I don't find it so," says Cat Burton, a pilot and ambassador for trans youth charity Mermaids.
Evelyn Osman, a member of QTI Coalition of Colour - a network for self-identified QTI BIPoC in Cambridge - says trans joy is "the feeling of stepping outside and taking my full, authentic self with me."
And writer and performer Yvy DeLuca says she makes it her mission to ensure she lives her trans joy every single day.
Watch the video to find out more about trans joy and meet the rest of our joyous contributors.
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