31-03-2025
LGBTQ+ advocates rally for trans visibility, slam latest NC bill targeting their rights
Advocates for trans rights rallied outside the North Carolina Capitol Sunday afternoon after marching through downtown Raleigh to protest federal- and state-level aggression toward the transgender and LGBTQ+ community.
At the crux is Senate Bill 516, introduced last Tuesday, which would ban trans people from using bathrooms and other single-sex facilities that align with their gender identity — similar to the state's 2016 'bathroom bill.'
'Less than four months into 2025, 42 anti-trans bills have passed in 18 different states,' Britt Bateman, a 22-year-old trans man and junior at North Carolina Central University, said during the rally that drew nearly 100 people.
Bateman, along with dozens of supporters, including Triangle branches of the Socialist Alternative and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, gathered for the 'Trans Day of Visibility and Resistance'on the eve of International Transgender Day of Visibility, which occurs on March 31.
SB 516 reignites a contentious debate over bathroom access that roiled the state in 2016 following the passage of House Bill 2, a similar law restricting transgender people from using the bathroom aligned to their gender, The News & Observer previously reported.
The latest bill would also target people's ability to modify sex markers on legal documents, so trans people would no longer have the right to change their gender on their birth certificate or driver's license to align with their identity.
'Senate Bill 516 threatens us with increased discrimination, dehumanization and violence,' Bateman said. 'As it is, I already feel anxiety when I use public restrooms. I've already had my gender interrogated in public bathrooms. I've already been harassed. And this bill just encourages more threats like that.'
Bateman said they believe that since President Donald Trump returned to office, hatred is being normalized.
Flyers advertising the rally circulated downtown Raleigh and blamed the Trump administration for 'using trans people as scapegoats to distract from the billionaire capture of the government.'
Trump has signed several executive orders limiting trans rights.
Earlier this year, he banned trans women and girls from participating in female sports in federally funded schools and banned federal funding or support for youth gender-affirming care. He has also stated the federal government would only recognize two sexes and has promoted banning service members in the military who identify as transgender.
'We gather here not just to be seen, but to send a message. We are here. We have always been here, and we are not going anywhere,' Zan Brigham, a 26-year-old trans man who lives in Durham, said into a megaphone.
Brigham said state politicians are 'waging war' on trans people.
'Trans people have always been the dreamers, the storytellers, the ones who dare to imagine a world beyond binaries, beyond borders, beyond oppression,' Brigham said.
Six individuals spoke over loudspeakers at Moore Square before the crowd began marching. As protesters moved toward the Capitol, they held signs that said 'Trans rights matter,' 'Trans rights are human rights,' and 'I am not an ideology, I am a human being.'
They chanted for trans liberation to end transphobic violence.
At the Capitol, the advocates opened the mic to attendees. There were no counter-protesters, though three State Capitol Police officers told the demonstrators that they did not have a permit to be there.
Five individuals shared their own stories, including Rosa Gibson, a trans woman and member of the Party for Socialism.
'I am thankful that I am trans because it puts me in a lineage of fighters,' Gibson said.
