Billy’s Banter: Reflections from the GSC Director (Transgender Day of Remembrance)

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2025

Dear Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Expansive Students, Faculty, and Staff:

I write this letter to you on this International Transgender Day of Remembrance from the National Communication Association’s annual conference in Aurora, Colorado. Ironically, I’m preparing to present on a panel today titled, “Fuck Fascism: Elevating Affective Incitements to Queer Joy.” I’m having so many contradictory emotions about focusing on joy on the day that is set aside to honor and remember our dead. This year is especially challenging (as you know) because it has become so normalized for people to publicly announce their desire to end us, and many of our institutions are increasingly silent. As far as trans folks go, I’m about as privileged as one can get, and even I am afraid of what’s to come for us.

As I mentioned in my comments at the Gender and Sexuality Center’s 30th Anniversary Celebration last month, most queer and trans folks are aware that we’re not just up against a few bad apples. What we’re up against is an entire world of meaning that is ultimately annihilating to us. In my work, and despite all the blatant transphobic attacks aimed our way right now, I am becoming more exhausted and hurt by those who are seemingly just “playing along.” You know the ones who respect (or try to respect) our names and pronouns and call themselves allies until a person they presume to have a penis walks into their bathroom. Then they reveal that they ultimately regard a trans woman as nothing more than a man in a dress. We are aware enough to understand that most people ultimately feel that way, whether they admit it or not, and for most people, this will likely never change. I tell you these things you surely already know because it’s time we say it publicly.

So what do we do? I want to suggest that we begin with the assumption that white supremacist colonialist notions of gender and sexuality are so fundamental to the structuring of their world and their identities, that devoting our energy to changing that world might not be the best strategy right now. How can we instead invest our energy into each other…..into making our reality better? I invite you to engage with the Gender and Sexuality Center and the Queer and Trans Studies Working Group. Come to us with your ideas. Let’s develop new strategies for strengthening our world alongside those who are differently oppressed (our realities are all connected).

In what has become my right now favorite book, Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy, Talia Mae Bettcher addresses her readers:
"I want to make sure that the following is clear: first, I only ever aim to provide illumination for trans people, nonbinary people, and friends. I do not believe in wasting my breath on transphobes. Second, the only other thing I attempt to accomplish through my work is to make new friends who are differently oppressed – a more edifying approach than begging for validation. Finally, while the attempt to alter the dominant practices of nontrans people may seem like a good idea – I’m frankly pessimistic – I am more interested in building new practices with new friends. If others want to give up their hostility and join us, that’s great.”
These words have come to inform what trans joy means to me and what I will address in my comments on my panel today. They also represent a different strategy (one among many) for our survival. I hope to continue this world making project with you.

With Critical Love and In Solidarity,

Billy