News On the Positive Side– by Cora Berke

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.

At any given moment we can have our fill of bad news, whether we are doom scrolling, watching our favorite news channel, listening to a podcast, or picking up a newspaper. Yet, if we look for the positive, we can find it in people who strive to make the world a better place.

International Transgender Day of Visibility was recently celebrated worldwide on March 31. It was created in 2009 by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a psychotherapist and transgender activist from Michigan. She previously founded Transgender Michigan in 1997 for her local community and wanted to create a broader holiday for transgenders worldwide, in addition to the established solemn Transgender Day of Remembrance.

In a 2021 interview, Crocker told reporter Samantha Allen of Them,” I thought about creating the International Transgender Day of Visibility for a number of years. I was upset that the only day that we had was Transgender Day of Remembrance, because I tend to get really depressed on that day. I wanted a day when, rather than talking about those who passed away, we could talk about those of us who were alive. And I wanted a day that would bring together trans people from all over the world.” Now in its seventeenth year, it is celebrated throughout the world.