Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in Virginia voted to observe the LGBT celebration of “Transgender Day of Visibility” on the same day as Easter Sunday, provoking accusations that the officials were carelessly denigrating the Christian holiday.
Even as “Transgender Day of Visibility” falls every year on March 31, the day on which Easter Sunday occurs this year for Western Christians, all nine of the officials present at a Tuesday meeting for the Board of Supervisors voted to recognize the holiday. Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff McKay, who chairs the entity, said elected officials have a “moral responsibility to stand up for all people that we represent, not just the people we like or the people we agree with.”
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, who leads the Fairfax chapter of the Independent Women’s Network, nevertheless wrote in an opinion piece that the Board of Supervisors are “sending a message to Christians that they do not matter as they turn one of their holiest days into a celebration of an ideology that undermines the church’s core convictions.”
“Aside from the inappropriateness of Transgender Visibility Day being on Easter this year, the resolution seems unnecessary,” she continued. “The transgender activist community does not have a visibility problem in northern Virginia. But it does appear to have a narcissism problem.”
Lundquist-Arora observed that the official recognition for “Transgender Day of Visibility” indeed comes after the Fairfax County School Board formally designated June as “LGBT Pride Month” and October as “LGBT History Month.” Members of the School Board moved three years ago to decouple Easter from the district spring break schedule, eventually reversing the decision.
LGBT organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign describe “Transgender Day of Visibility” as a way to “celebrate the joy and resilience of trans and non-binary people everywhere by elevating voices and experiences from these communities.” President Joe Biden released a proclamation last year likewise recognizing “Transgender Day of Visibility” and calling on Americans to “join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people.”
