Oceanside, Hillcrest Host Celebrations of Transgender Community
Community members gathered at Heritage Park for free food, music, resources and inspirational speakers.


People from the transgender community and allies gathered recently at Heritage Park in Oceanside to celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility with a picnic, entertainment and activities.

The Transgender Day of Visibility, which typically falls on March 31, began in 2009 when Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a transgender advocate from Michigan, posted on Facebook. The Day of Visibility aims to celebrate the accomplishments and beauty of the transgender community, a point highlighted by President Joe Biden in his proclamation on Transgender Day of Visibility.

To Jet Finnell, who was the organizer of the event in Oceanside on April 2 and is the gender-advocacy Project Coordinator at the North County LGBTQ Center, celebrating the community is the only way to survive.


they are without any fear,” Abustan said.

The future, though, would not be possible without those who fought before them, said Abustan.

“We are awesome today, thanks to trans and black trans women such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera,” Abustan said.

People in the transgender community are not a rarity, Finnell said. Rather, they are embedded in everyone’s communities.

“There’s this whole statistic that 80% of people in America don't personally know someone who’s transgender," Finnell said, "but I like to say that they don't know that they know someone who's transgender."

Abustan agreed.

“We’re everywhere," Abustan said. "We could be your family members, we could be your coworkers and we're here just like you to hopefully make this world a better, more peaceful, more just place."

Finnell's call to action?

“Open your mind a little bit to the possibility that people you know may have a different idea of gender than you might think that they would," Finnell said.