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Sounds of live music, people laughing and the supportive honks of passing drivers filled the air at Gateway Park in Mountain View on Tuesday afternoon as community members gathered to celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility.
More than 100 people showed up to the March 31 rally, which was organized by It’s Blue Turn, Indivisible Palo Alto Plus and South Bay Queer Solidarity. Attendees stood on the corner of El Camino Real and Castro Street holding signs with slogans like “Protect Trans Lives,” “Love is Louder” and “Honk for Trans Rights” before turning their attention to performances and speeches by local activists and leaders.
“We deserve to exist. We deserve to have a voice. We deserve to have a presence,” community member Alicia Mullens told the Voice during the demonstration, with live music from the Mitchell Park Band playing in the background. “We’re not just some fringe group. We’re actually humans.”
Under the Trump administration, protections for the LGBTQ+ community have been curtailed nationally, including the removal of a gender-neutral sex marker option on passports, restrictions on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military and attempts to prevent gender-affirming care from being offered to young people.
Mountain View Mayor Emily Ann Ramos spoke at the March 31 rally, telling the crowd that “transgender people are facing a wave of harmful rhetoric and policies that seek to erase them, to limit their rights and deny their humanity.”
“Here in Mountain View, we have a choice,” Ramos said. “We can choose to be a place where people feel safe to be who they are. We can choose to build systems that reflect dignity and respect, and we can choose to stand alongside our neighbors, not just in words, but in action.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a ban on “conversion therapy” that the state of Colorado enacted in 2019. The law prohibited mental health providers from trying to change the gender identity or sexual orientation of a minor. However, in an 8-1 decision, the court sided with a counselor who challenged the ban, finding that it raised First Amendment concerns.
In a speech at Tuesday’s rally, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte CEO and President Stacy Cross argued that the court’s ruling was purposely released to coincide with Transgender Day of Visibility.
“We have to let … our congressional members know that we stand with trans folks because they are targeting trans and gender non-conforming people by restricting access to life-affirming care,” Cross said.
She highlighted that Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which serves people throughout mid-California and Nevada, provides gender-affirming care and conducted more than 11,000 transgender patient visits in 2025.
Hillary French, a San Jose resident who works as a pediatric and adolescent gender specialist, told the Voice that she came to the event to support the transgender community. French said that she’s concerned about the number of transgender teens dying by suicide, including in the local area, adding that the suicide rate among transgender youth is higher than that of their cisgender peers.
“Events like this show teens and other people that we care about you, you’re worth living,” French said.
The March 31 demonstration served to remind the community that “everybody belongs here,” and that “trans rights are human rights,” said Mountain View resident Mariya Genzel, who was one of the event’s organizers.
“Love should win over everything,” Genzel told the crowd. “We shouldn’t be afraid to tell everybody who we are.”
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