Trans Awareness Week at ASU celebrated, supported and educated

2 minutes

At ASU, students across Arizona celebrated transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit people this fall during Trans Awareness week while also seeking to educate allies and provide visibility for transgender people.

Gage Keranen is the facilitator of programming for the Rainbow Coalition. Keranen is studying conservation biology, film production and LGBT studies in his final year at ASU.

Keranen’s own challenges with discrimination and lack of acess to resources caused him to become very passionate about putting emphasis on the experiences of transgender people and their needs.

Gage Keranen, ASU student, poses with the pride flag.

Gage Keranen is very passionate about putting emphasis on the experiences of transgender people and their needs.

Keranen says that his week was particularly important for him because it was a week where trangender people could be celebrated nationally. Keranan says that “trans joy is resistance."

“While many representations of transgender people are of suffering and negativity, we can dispel them by celebrating our identities and bodies. It signifies a radical self-love that challenges cisnormative gender constructs and that will help us stitch together a more positive view of transness.”

Trans Awareness Week was celebrated across the country this November, leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance, which was held on Novemeber 20 to honor people who were killed because of transphobia. Many events were held, including the Genderbread gender discussion at Poly, Zines for Ze/Zirs crafts for the nonbinary communiity, Get Ready with Drag Royalty event to learn about drag makeup, painting a Trans Awareness Week Mural and a TransFam General Meeting.

If you’d like to get involved at ASU, you can join ASU Rainbow Coalition on Sun Devil Sync.

As for what we can do right now to take action?

Keranan says, “Donate your time, money, clothes, food, etc. to organizations both locally and nationally supporting transgender people, especially trans people of color. Add your pronouns to social media bios and email signatures, wear a pronoun pin, and regularly introduce yourself with pronouns.”