Monday is Transgender Day of Visibility, and about fifty protestors marked the occasion by gathering on the steps of city hall in downtown Wilmington on Saturday.
Cheyanne Dos Santos and Kaylyn Koone, who co-founded the activist organization ILM Action Network, organized the protest. Dos Santos said her main political concerns were the rollback of DEI policies at UNCW and the new Senate bill.
"We are currently worried about SB 516," she told WHQR. "That has become the new HB 2. It is more intense. It is completely hell bent on destroying any actual transition ability for trans people."
SB 516 would prohibit trans people from changing their gender markers on official documents (like drivers' licenses and birth certificates) and revive HB 2 era bathroom bans. Republican senator Vickie Sawyer filed the bill last week. Senate leader Phil Berger has not sponsored the bill, but says that he's considering it.
"We always want to do as much as we can to protect women and girls, and if there is a need and if the caucus is wanting to proceed with this, we'll kinda see where things go," he told a WUNC reporter last week.
The bill has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing, so it's unclear whether it will be sidelined or eventually make it to the governor's desk. But many at Saturday's protest said it was a sign that the political climate had gotten worse for trans people in the United States. Phoebe, who asked to be identified by her first name only, said that was why she wanted to attend.
"Being visibly trans in public, especially in this day and age, can be a scary thing. But I got over myself, and I decided it's important to stand up and and be visible and come together and show just how much of us there are," she said. "Trans rights forever, death before detransition, amen."
The protest culminated in a peaceful march through downtown Wilmington.
