Trans Day of Visibility

Celebrated on March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility is an international day of awareness that highlights transgender achievements and greatness in response to intentional exclusion of transgender people, voices, and actions in the current societal culture and discourse. Transgender people exist in all corners of the world so it is important to emphasize their value. In this program, we feature transgender individuals in STEAM fields, offer cultural and scientific context for transgender experiences, and celebrate the diversity of human expression.

Under the Moon
With Tory and the Teasers
12:30 and 2:30 p.m.
Bechtel Gallery 3

Come and listen to Tory Teasley and her band, Tory and the Teasers! From classic hits to unreleased songs, this musical performance will have you dancing, swaying, and swooning to jazz, soul, funk, and pop.

Tory Teasley describes her sound as “eclectic with jazz roots.” Her songs represent a broad range of genres from neo-soul, funk, and R&B to blues, classical, and gospel. An Oakland native, Tory regularly sang at her church during adolescence, which eventually led her to the Berkeley Jazz School where she studied classical music. Alongside a list of accolades, Tory often performs at UC Berkeley with Oakadelic and carries an artist residency with the Queer Arts Center and has opened for both San Francisco Mayor London Breed at City Hall and Grammy-winning artist Fantastic Negrito.

Custom Pronoun Button Making
With the Visitor Experience Facilitators
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Crossroads

Create your own button showcasing your amazing pronouns! Use a template or blank slate to design, color, and embellish a free button. Then wear it proudly to let everyone know about you and to help normalize introducing your full self to everyone you meet. Our fabulous Visitor Experience Facilitator team will be there to help you get your beautiful buttons made.

The Visitor Experience Facilitators are a cohort of informal educators who help guests understand, question, and experience the museum on a deeper level.

Gender Euphoria Wall
With the Visitor Experience Facilitators
11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Bechtel Gallery 3

Show us what makes you feel comfortable in your skin! Take a picture of your fresh haircut, new shoes, fancy earrings, stunning arms, or whatever else makes you, you. Show the world what you love about yourself! Let’s take this moment to embrace what we love about ourselves, instead of picking at what we don’t. The Visitor Experience Facilitators will help showcase what your mama gave you!

The Visitor Experience Facilitators are a cohort of informal educators who help guests understand, question, and experience the museum on a deeper level.

Putting the T in STEAM
With Gwen Payne, Posters by the High School Explainers
11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Osher Gallery 1, Black Box

Trans people, past and present, have had major impacts on STEAM. Step inside Putting the T in STEAMto learn more about the lives and careers of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people. A collaboration between the Exploratorium’s High School Explainer program and Gwen Payne, this programis the culmination of six weeks of workshops, which resulted in a series of biographical posters highlighting the lives and achievements of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people in STEAM.

Gwen Payne (she/her or they/them) is an agitator, science communicator, and a non-binary transgender woman. She works as part of the Striving for Trans Inclusion and Anti-Racism in Science Learning (STARS) team, and is the Project Lead for the STARS/High School Explainer Workshop series. 

Lenses on Transgender, Non-Binary, and Two Spirit Short Films and Panel
With QWOCMAP
12:45 p.m.
Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

Enjoy a curated set of short films that share the wide range of transgender, non-binary, and Two Spirit experiences. Drawn from the collection and work of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), the films celebrate and illuminate the intersectionality of trans individuals and how they navigate the world. The screening will be followed by a conversation featuring select filmmakers whose work will be shown at the screening.

QWOCMAP creates, exhibits, and distributes high-impact new films that authentically reflect the lives of queer women of color both cisgender and transgender, and non-binary, gender-nonconforming, and transgender people of color of any orientation, and addresses the vital, intersecting social justice issues that concern our multiple communities.

Trans Visibility in STEM
With Orion Lam, Kenya Bordeaux, Terra Field, Moderated by Honey Mahogany, Organized by the San Francisco Transgender District
2:00 p.m.
Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

Equitable opportunities for transgender individuals in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) create pathways to bridge the gap between marginalization and fundamental inclusion in social and technological advancement. Join us for a panel conversation curated by the Transgender District focusing on the importance of trans representation in STEM while promoting frameworks of accountability for organizations. 

Kenya Boudreaux (she/her) is an Embedded Test Engineer at Apple working on software automation and test frameworks within GPU Software. Outside of work, Kenya is a fierce and distinguished advocate for transgender rights, passing civil rights bills for trans youth in California. Kenya received the Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2019 and served as an education policy consultant to the White House with the Biden-Harris administration in 2021. Today, she operates as the Executive Director of The Frances Thompson Education Foundation, a nonprofit supporting Black trans and non-binary students pursuing post-secondary education in the United States, Jamaica, and Brazil.

Orion Lam (he/him) is a professor of chemistry at Solano Community College in Fairfield, CA. He is Vietnamese American and identifies as a transgender man. He studied chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Washington and got his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. His research focused on small molecule activation with low valent uranium coordination compounds which led to 20+ publications in high impact journals such as JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Communications, and Inorganic Chemistry

Terra Field (she/her) is a Systems Engineer who specializes in the automated deployment, configuration, management, and orchestration of scalable data pipelines and warehouses on bare-metal, private, and public clouds. Ms. Field was formerly at Netflix, where she gained notoriety following her vocal opposition to Dave Chapelle's Netflix special, The Closer, and her leadership of the Netflix Walkout.

Honey Mahogany (she/they) is a performer, emcee, social worker, and activist who grew up in San Francisco and received her MA in social welfare from UC Berkeley. Honey is also a co-founder of the Transgender Cultural District and co-owner of the legendary Stud Bar. Honey's work has earned her recognition from the City of San Francisco and the State of California; Sainthood from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; and awards from the Milk Club, SF Young Democrats, SF Women's Political Committee, and the Women's Foundation of California.

The mission of the Transgender District is to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood. The transgender district aims to stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces.

Bathroom Boundaries
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Crossroads Restrooms

Our restroom has been turned into a facilitated exhibit to experience an everyday practice in a new way.