Rhino Ramblings

My latest Rhino find.

March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility (also known as TDOV or Trans Day of Visibility).  It is also Easter, a day celebrating re-birth (and for some reasoning rabbits and colored eggs).  Obviously, this is just a weird coincidence since Easter jumps – or I guess hops like a rabbit – around the calendar.  Significant for me this year, as I view my decision last year to leave the Glass Closet (I know – you all are getting tired of me pointing back to this phrase and blog, but I do see it as a seminal part of my journey so get used to it; if you have not read that blog – please do) as my second re-birth.  I will leave the Easter analogy at that.  Mine was certainly not a religious experience and I do not want to presume any god-like powers.

I can actually point to 3 re-births for me:  the re-birth in San Francisco in the mid 1990s which formally initiated my transition to living full-time and visibly as Joanne. This was an outward facing re-birth.  The second was a year or so later with a trip to Portland and reassignment surgery. This marked a physical re-birth and a self-visibility of my body matching my mind.  The third was last year with the aforementioned Glass Closet exit.  This was a recognition of who I am; how people relate to who I am; and my need (this was a tough wording-I considered using a less forceful word such as want or desire but in the end it was a need that I had ignored) to live fully and visibly who I am and how I relate to and with others.

I continue to take steps to being more visible.  I will be pontificating this week at Kennedy Space Center and on-line throughout NASA on my life and thoughts on the Trans journey.  My goal is for this to be a first step in being a highly visible speaker on trans and the LGBTQIA+ community and even broader Diversity and Inclusion topics.  (Personal plug on my personal blog:  I am looking for opportunities to speak individually or on panels relating to trans, LGBTQIA+ and/or diversity topics – please feel free to pass on my information to anyone that might need voices in this arena). I am developing, with the help of friends, a mission statement of sorts.  The current wording is:

“In the mid-90s, with a 20-year career at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Joanne became the first Male-to-Female Transgender to transition on the job at NASA and one of the first to do so in the Federal Government. After several years of leading support related groups and adjusting to a new reality, she focused on her professional career, personal life and disconnected from the LGBTQIA+ community.  In recent years, she has become Baba (grandmother) to two grandchildren and has re-emerged from her self-defined “glass closet” to once again provide support to the entire LGBTQIA+ community through her blog (https://rhinotalk.blog/), LGBTQ+ ERG leadership, Inclusivity standards committees and as an active advocate and speaker on issues old and new facing those who dare to be themselves. Joanne’s journey, introspection, and outreach form a voice and platform to foster understanding, dialogue, and insight on diversity and inclusion for the self, the personal, and the professional perspectives.”

Trans Day of Visibility was initiated 14 years ago.  The Human Rights Campaign (HRC – https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/international-transgender-day-of-visibili ) has the tagline: “We celebrate the joy and resilience of trans and non-binary people everywhere by elevating voices and experiences from these communities.”  GLAAD (  https://glaad.org/tdov/) describes the day in the following terms: “a day where people could re-focus on celebrating the lives of transgender people, empowering them to live authentically, while still acknowledging that due to discrimination, not every trans person can or wants to be visible.” 

Visibility is a two-edged (or more a multi-edged) sword.  Nex Benedict (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Nex_Benedict)  is a tragic and all too frequently repeated tale of visibility ending in death.  I can hear people (this would have been my father if he were alive) blaming Nex because they could have just not been visible.  Blaming the victim game is a baseless attempt to justify hatred and prejudice and the resulting actions. 

If visibility has one edge that ends in hatred, discrimination and too often violence, why celebrate visibility on March 31?   There are certainly psychological reasonings and fully living as oneself is a key to be “Eligible to be Happy” (see my previous blog).  While awaiting the world to embrace each person’s individuality and visible (and non-visible) representations of themselves, visibility leadership is vital.   Representation is a word I only recently became aware of.  Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones) was recently interviewed on Bullseye – a podcast on NPR. He articulated his willingness only to act in roles in which his size is not the focus while also recognizing his roles are a visible representation for short people.  Visibility of positive role models or even just ordinary people, of which I hope I am one, represents to the associated community that being visibly oneself, while containing risk, can lead to a livable life.  Representation can also bolster on-going support and perhaps motivate the more neutral of us to not judge or allow prejudice to lead.  For those on the judgmental and prejudicial side, representation is unlikely to sway them.  Visibility is a necessity to counteract the outspoken, uncompassionate, hate-filled, misleading advocates against anyone who does not fit their mold of acceptability. 

Quick TV side note – I just finished watching Fellow Travelers on Showtime.  An excellent tale of two gay men and their journey in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  One elected visibility while the other embraced invisibility.  I recommend the series. 

I will now pack my bags and prepare my talk in two days.  I hope this is a next step into my own visibility to lead, support and advocate for Trans, LGBTQIA+ and all who seek to honor and praise each individual for who they are both visibly and invisibly.