Various paints lined a table in the Student Diversity and Inclusion office on Monday, March 31, the official Transgender Day of Visibility. Several members of the SDI office, as well as fellow students, painted and enjoyed Shirley Temples together at the “Paint and Sip” event.
Mecca Winston, a senior fine arts student and office manager at the SDI office, helped plan the event. She said she hoped it would be a space for students to decompress and relax, especially in the midst of the Trump administration’s push to limit LGBTQ+ rights.
“I feel like a lot of it is like, as connected as we are, there’s also a disconnect, so having events like this is really important, especially hosting them in our like space at SDI,” Winston said
Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an order requiring the federal government to recognize only two genders, directed agencies to eliminate statements and policies supporting gender ideology and disbanded the White House Gender Policy Council.
“Recognizing the toll that violence takes on the trans community specifically, and I think that Trans Day of Visibility is also an incredibly important way that we honor our trans community, especially here on campus and our students that we have on campus,” said Charee Mosby-Holloway, the director of SDI. “Just let them know that they do have a community, they do have support, and I think it is particularly important to us this year.”
Mar Wynn, a senior film and television major, found the event to be very inclusive. Wynn said more events focused on trans people should be incorporated on campus.
“I think it’s honestly really needed and there’s not a lot of events that showcases trans individuals, especially with just so much going on in the world,” Wynn said. “I think we really need to lean on each other and uplift one another, and events like this help us do so.”
Another student, first-year animation major Ashley Cervantes, painted a bunny that Winston drew. According to Cervantes, who is a worker at the SDI office, the event was meant to “unleash your creative side, just calm down, relax.”
Sophomore radio major Piper Bacon was eager to be in a space with more trans people. While there, she painted a comic she enjoyed and appreciated the college for hosting a trans-centered event.
“I mean, in my experience, it’s hard to find dedicated trans spaces, especially for me because I live on the South Side and a lot of the stuff in the city is like Andersonville or north,” Bacon said. “So, being in this place that’s relatively closer than I’m already at a lot of the time, having sort of trans events and trans spaces is a lot nicer than trying to make it all the way up to the North Side.”
Mosby-Holloway said the message is clear. “To our trans, nonbinary students here at Columbia, you do have a community,” Mosby-Holloway said. “You have people that see you, you deserve to be visible and even if you for whatever reason cannot be visible, we still want to celebrate you and hope that you know that you have a space here on campus that you will be affirmed in who you are.”
Copy edited by Patience Hurston
