Tommy Dorfman’s View on the Ground at New York City’s Trans Day of Visibility Rally

It is a scary time to be queer or trans in America. A homophobic and transphobic culture war is raging across the country, with drag bans, transphobic bathroom bills, attacks on gender-affirming care, and countless other pieces of legislation curtailing the freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community—and without much outcry or objection from those cisgender, heterosexual individuals who consider themselves allies.

All this was the context for the Trans Day of Visibility rally in downtown New York City on Friday, where hundreds of queer and trans protestors convened to decry anti-trans bigotry and call for increased community support. Actress Tommy Dorfman, who publicly came out as a trans woman in 2021, was at the rally to speak and bear witness to the work of the youth organizers who had helped to create the event. “I’m always shocked to be in the presence of so many queer and trans people, because more often than not, especially at work, I’m one of one in the room,” she tells Vogue the next day.

“All signs are pointing to a very specific type of targeted eradication of an entire part of humanity in this country, if these people get their way, and that starts with denying medical and health care that is necessary for survival for trans people,” she adds. “I think there’s a lot of frustration with how silent the entertainment and fashion industries have been during this time, which feels incredibly disheartening, because they do love to profit off of us.”

The rally wasn’t without it hitches—Dorfman recalls seeing a right-wing influencer infiltrate the crowd, acting “so aggressive and cheesy that it almost seemed like he was doing a drag impersonation of himself”—but overall, the day was devoted to reflection and the celebration of a community that has historically been marginalized.

“These queer and trans kids [organizing the rally] were 16, 17, 18, and they had so much love and respect for each other,” says Dorfman. “I was enamored by the way they treat each other and the community that they foster and the care that they have for the rest of the country, because obviously New York is not in as dire straits—yet—compared to the 46 states that have introduced anti-trans legislation this year alone. 

“New York is an outlier for now, but I don’t think anyone is resting on our laurels in any way,” she continues. “This disease of transphobia and this type of rhetoric is contagious, and there was definitely an acknowledgement of that during the protest.”