Today is the International Trans Day of Visibility—a day set aside each year to both celebrate the trans community, and bring awareness to the challenges they face.

Advocate Gemma Hickey believes “incredible strides” have been made for the community since the day was first declared in 2010.

That said, Hickey says there are still challenges, noting CSIS security warnings, political policies in other parts of the country, and events happening in the United States.

They say all of that generates hate toward the community—noting that they have experienced much of that first hand including being spit on and receiving death threats. Hickey says they are inundated with messages from people concerned with what’s happening.