As lawmakers across the nation work to advance hundreds of bills targeting trans rights and anti-trans rhetoric increasingly fills local online community forums, some used Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 to celebrate trans joy.

"We spend so much time thinking about what we're losing and what we're worried about," Tommie Moore conceded after attending a March 31 gathering organized by Queer Humboldt in Old Town Eureka. "Today should be a day where we focus on ourselves — things that bring us joy, things that bring us meaning."

Humboldt saw small gatherings and protests, including a walkout in support of trans rights at Hoopa Valley High School. Elsewhere around the nation, trans communities and allies protested hundreds of recently introduced anti-trans bills. One of those, California Assembly Bill 1314, would amend the education code, requiring schools to reveal students' gender identities to parents. Arcata High School art teacher and Sexuality and Gender Acceptance Club advisor Johanna Mauro believes the bill would threaten safe spaces in schools.

"It would put educators in a terrible position to tell on or 'out' students in a way that might potentially put them in an unsafe situation at home," Mauro said. "It's important for people to understand that it is developmentally normal to explore gender identity at this age, and some students do that in school."

Mauro emphasized the importance of accepting students who are still figuring out who they are. Students need to feel safe to be their own authentic selves to thrive socially and academically, she said, adding that she has already seen recent anti-trans rhetoric impact students.

"As an art teacher, I see students processing the news into their artwork," Mauro said. "It's really sad to see these young people othered and shamed, so much hate thrown at them, and they're just trying to be themselves."

Local trans artist and activist Nikki Valencia enjoys the community she's found in Humboldt. She moved from Orange County, which she said was less supportive. In Humboldt, the trans community is more intimate, she said, and there is a desire to create community. She collaborates with other Queer and BIPOC artists through Humboldt Homies, a local art collective.

"It's pretty inclusive here. The people here mean well, and they do care," Valencia said. "Humboldt Homies hosts events centered on the most marginalized people. It uplifts the art of people who don't usually get priority in other events."

Valencia used to host monthly protests in Arcata Plaza but stopped in February as support from the community dwindled. Now Valencia uses online video essays to tackle intersectional issues like transmisogynoir, the specific interlaced oppression Black trans women face. According to studies by the Human Rights Campaign, Black trans women of color experience disproportionate rates of violence because they are facing discrimination and prejudice on multiple fronts.

"There's a disparity of support for Black trans folks," Valencia said. "There are still different levels of privilege within the trans community. Black trans folks led this discourse, and now we kind of feel like we've been left in the dust."

Valencia said she sees this manifest in Humboldt when trans students face systemic barriers to getting into the right dorms at Cal Poly Humboldt. Cal Poly Humboldt offers queer-specific housing with gender-neutral accommodations but when students can't afford these dorms, or if they fill up too quickly, they are made to choose between men's or women's dorms. Valencia said she also encounters challenges getting gender-affirming healthcare in Humboldt. She's experienced limited healthcare options and a waitlist for hormone replacement therapy prescriptions. While any trans person may struggle to get gender-affirming care locally, Valencia believes her intersectional identity compounded her experience.

"It's hard to get on estrogen up here. The medical infrastructure up here feels overworked," Valencia said. "It feels like there are too many of us for them to handle. They're underprepared for us to be ourselves."

Sprout Atlas, a co-owner of and mechanic at Moon Cycles bicycle and roller skating shop in Arcata, has experienced their own challenges living in Humboldt as a non-binary person, or someone who isn't male or female. Atlas used to work with another bike-based nonprofit but was fired and feels their termination had to do with their requests for gender accommodation.

"I wouldn't say living here is always easy," Atlas said. "There definitely is that old-guard culture here; it is a rural place. The younger generations are definitely coming in with new language and are more accepting."

They said the community allows them to feel supported as an openly queer business. There are many niches of trans joy to be had around Humboldt, Atlas said, adding they find it in movement and getting outside to ride bikes.

"I experience joy from body-based movement. Going out and moving with your friends and experiencing the feeling of being in your body is how I find joy," Atlas said. "It's nice to set an example for younger people of what living and working as an openly queer person looks like."

Ollie Hancock (they/them) is a staff writer at the Journal. Reach them at (707) 442-1400, extension 317, or [email protected].