Trans Rights Readathon :: 2025

March 21-31, 2025

The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st.We are calling on the reader community to read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, nonbinary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors and characters.If you are taking part in this year's readathon, please fill out the survey below and tell us how you will be participating!

• Readathon Sign Up

About

The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st. This year’s Trans Rights Readathon will take place from Friday, March 21 to Monday, March 31, 2025.Founded by author Sim Kern and initially started as a small movement, the Trans Rights Readathon raised over $234,000 dollars for trans supporting organizations in 2023 -- with 2,669 participants reading 7,800 books across 43 countries.HOW DOES THE READATHON WORK?
During the 11 days of the readathon (March 21-31), read trans* books and donate to trans* organizations.
This is a decentralized fundraiser, so how you participate is up to you. You can read 1 book or 20 books. You can donate to a large organization or a personal GoFundMe. This year, we will also be sharing calls to action on over social media during the 11-day event.Signing up helps us track participation and communicate effectively and send out our wrap-up survey. Knowing how many people participated, and what we can do better next year, makes us feel nice. <3

• Readathon Sign Up

 
Call to action: Read, support, review, and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, genderqueer, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and 2Spirit authors and characters.Make content: Tag the new official @transrightsreadathon accounts on Instagram and Tiktok and @trreadathon on Twitter, and use #transrightsreadathon and #TRR25 when you post.Donate: We encourage decentralization! Participants are welcome to fundraise for trans aid organizations in their communities. If you don’t know of any organizations near you, suggestions are available on our website.

Leadership

Bee
they/them
@selfbybee everywhere!

Kat Norton / K.C. Norton
she/they
@katnortonwriter on BlueSky and the ‘Gram

Raven
they/them
@notsobinaryart on TT, @notsobinary.art on IG

Rebecca
she/her
@beyourselfbookshop IG, @be_yourself_bookshop TT

Steph
she/her
@starrysteph TT & Youtube, @starry.steph IG

Ritu Vedi
He/him/ve (vay)/ver (vair)

Graphics

Resources

Charity Recommendations

2025 Action Items

Day 1: Write Love Letters to Trans People

Show your love & dedication for trans people by writing them a love letter. Bonus points if you share them online & tag both the organizers & us!Write Love Letter to Trans Youth in Targeted States
Write Love Letters to Trans People in Texas
Write Love Letters to Trans Oklahomans
Write physical Love Letters to Trans Floridians
Write physical Love Letters for Point of Pride

Day 2: Offer Direct Support

Author TJ Alexander has called on readers to support trans folks directly. In that spirit, we’re asking participants who have the means to support mutual aid funds. If you’re looking for options, we recommend any (or all!) of the following three GFM campaigns.
- Help Vanessa Philpots secure safe housing before her lease ends in April.
- Help Jen Deerinwater get a safe, accessible residence.
- Help Milo, aka graphic artist pocketmilo, recover after a medical emergency.

Day 3: Spark Conversations

Author Victoria Zeller has asked allies to “stick up for trans people in rooms we’re not in.”This action is for the allies out there: Start a conversation about trans rights with someone in your life. If you’re not sure where to start, take a few minutes to write out or role play a possible conversation.Trans folks, your assignment today is to do something kind for yourself. Some suggestions for positive affirmations can be found here.

Day 4: Support Local Trans Organizations

Author L.M. Juniper is encouraging readers to seek out a local trans-supporting aid organization. Are they holding any events you could attend? Are they asking for anything specific, such as donations of clothes, food, or hygiene products? Do they have volunteer opportunities that work for your schedule? In short: what do they need that you are equipped to provide?If you can’t find LGBTQIA2S+ organizations, look for other options like food banks or shelters that may have specific request lists—according to the Trevor Project, roughly 28% of queer youth experience housing instability at some point in their lives.

Day 5: Signal Safety

Author Elias Cold has asked readers to find ways to signal safety. This could take the form of adding pronouns to your email signature, wearing a pin, putting a pro-trans sticker on a laptop or office door, adding a patch to a laptop bag or jacket, or confronting anti-trans rhetoric in both public and private spaces. The Trevor Project has suggestions here.Unfortunately, this may require creativity depending on where you work or live, especially if you are trans+. This is one reason we need the people who CAN safely speak up to be loud. For trans folks: remember that your safety matters. And for allies: this is a gentle reminder that comfort and safety are not the same thing.If you're looking for a patch, sticker, shirt, or similar item and want to support trans-owned small businesses in the process, here are a few suggestions. (We're not affiliated with these businesses, we just like supporting trans creators.)

Day 6: Contact Your Reps

Author Emery Lee wishes that people would reach out to their reps to make it clear that trans rights matter. If you live in the US, apps like 5 Calls can make it easy to figure out contact information for your elected officials. Track Trans Legisation’s main site is out of date, but their phone and email script generator can help you model your message.Many policies that affect trans people are made on the state and city level. For US residents, check out The Movement Advancement Project map (specifically the “gender identity” tab) to see how your state ranks and what issues need to be addressed. The ACLU offers tracking for some state-level bills, too. Contacting your local lawmakers can have a more immediate impact on the safety of your community. Other state-level calls to action can be found on EqualityFederation’s member list.

Day 7: Learn How to Testify

Author D.N. Bryn has asked that those who support trans causes be loud. There are currently more than 700 anti-trans bills in the US, but as we’ve seen, testimony can gather bipartisan support.If you are a US resident, we ask that you review active anti-trans bills in your state. Regardless of where you live, A4TE’s guide on how to testify for trans rights can help you craft a brief, focused, and impactful statement.If you can, find an opportunity to testify in person. If not, consider how else you can share your testimony. Can you send your testimony as a physical letter? Can you post this testimony and tag your representatives? Let’s find ways to get loud about these issues.

Day 8: Support an Indie Bookstore (or Library)

Author Kamryn Kingsberry has asked readers to listen to trans experiences: check out a podcast, watch a movie… or read a book! And because it’s the last weekend of the readathon, we’re asking people to visit their local indie bookstore (in person if possible!) and buy or preordering a trans book so that you can keep supporting trans stories long after the readathon ends.If that’s not an option for you, what about a library? Do you know about the Virtual Queer Library? What about the Queer Liberation Library?

Check Back Later for the Rest of This List!

Contact

Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.Ready to join the 2025 Readathon? Fill out our intro survey:

• Sign up here