Thursday, 20 November 2025 12:00 PM

VIRTUAL

Community Conversation: The Violence of Visibility: Who Protects the Dolls, the Boys, and the Rest of Us?

In honour of Trans Day of Remembrance, this talk reflects on what we choose to remember — and what must be done now. As trans people continue to inhabit the wreckage of visibility politics, we are left asking: what has visibility truly protected, and who has actually protected us? What systems, communities, and practices have sustained trans life — and what has failed us? This is not only a question of trans survival, but of human survival. To protect trans life is to protect the possibility of a more just, caring, and livable world for all of us. This conversation invites us to reckon with the limits of symbolic inclusion and to imagine forms of remembrance, solidarity, and action that move us toward collective liberation.

Leading this conversation is Zariyah Grant, a trans woman, scholar, and active member of the Toronto ballroom scene. A Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, Zariyah recently completed her Fulbright exchange at Barnard College, Columbia University, in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History and the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, where she also teaches. Trained in 20th-century U.S. history and the gendered histories of slavery and capitalism in the Atlantic world, her research examines Black deviant subjects and the politics of survival in post–World War II New York City.

Location: Virtual, with streaming available in the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre (North & Lakeshore)

Registration link:

https://simpli.events/e/trans-day-remembrance2025

This event is part of the Community Conversation series hosted by Humber's Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging. For more information visit https://humber.ca/inclusion-belonging/edib