Attended by approximately 3,000 transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary individuals and their allies, the first National Trans Visibility March on DC took place September 28. Demonstrators marched to raise awareness of the challenges that trans people face, such as housing and job discrimination; health inequities, including high rates of HIV; and, worst of all, physical violence.

National organizing director Marissa Miller, a Black trans woman living with HIV, emphasized that the march was also intended to honor the lives of the 18 trans women murdered this year who are believed to have been targeted because of their gender identity and expression; 17 of those killed were women of color.

Miller, actress Angelica Ross, Human Rights Campaign director Alphonso David, TransLatin@ founder Bamby Salcedo, Congresswoman Eleanor Norton and other speakers kicked things off with a rally at Washington’s Freedom Plaza. From there, marchers traveled south along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House, home of an administration that has unleashed several political attacks against trans people. But, as the march proved, despite being vulnerable, the trans community is also resilient and, now, very much visible.