Besides the great laws that we have in my state that protect trans people — like an inclusive ENDA that we seemed to have little difficulty passing, even though they can’t seem to muster it on a federal level; a public accommodations law that protects trans people; and a hate crimes law that includes gender identity — our Pride celebrations this year seem to have taken a trans-friendly turn.
First, we had slam poet and trans activist Kit Yan as the emcee for Fort Collins Pride in the Park (I was impressed — Fort Collins isn’t a backward community by any means, but it isn’t Manhattan or San Francisco, either).
Then yesterday, I found out that Dr. Marci Bowers is scheduled to be the grand marshal for the Colorado Springs PrideFest parade on July 18 and will speak at the event (Colorado Springs, mind you — yes, it’s home to Focus on the Family, but it’s also one of the first cities in the country to have an official trans training program for its police department, with plans for expanding the training to firefighters and other city workers).
And, of course, there’s Denver PrideFest coming up this weekend, which has celebrated the trans community before it was even cool to do so. Leslie Feinberg was grand marshal of the PrideFest parade a few years ago, and Donna Rose was grand marshal in 2008.
This year, I’m one of 18 grand marshals, along with Kate Bowman, board chair of the Gender Identity Center of Colorado (GIC), and Jessie Shafer, aka David Reaser, a longtime and powerful activist in the trans and larger LGBT community.
Not only that, but we have a Trans Rest Area at this year’s Denver PrideFest (you know how tired we get — transition takes its toll, and then there are the constant questions, identity challenges, bathroom issues, and so on, plus our shoes never fit right and our feet hurt).
Actually, the rest area for everyone, but it’s hosted by the Transgender Advisory Committee to the GLBT Community Center of Colorado (The Center), the organization that puts on PrideFest every year, as well as The Center’s Transgender Program, with volunteers from the GIC and the larger trans community. (Thanks to Courtney Gray of the Transgender Advisory Committee for all her hard work on this.)
The intention is to provide trans information to the larger LGBT community, as well as a welcoming space to sit down and, well, rest. It will be interesting to see who ventures in — mostly tired trans people, no doubt.
But looking at the trans focus of the various Pride celebrations in the state, all planned independently of each other, it seems that it’s becoming increasingly hip to be trans in Colorado’s LGBT communities. We still have our moments, and some of them are pretty bad, but all things considered, we could be doing a lot worse.
The only problem for me is that, as I get older, my hipness isn’t growing — just my hips are (yeah, I still have them and they’re not going away). And I’m getting weary — good thing we have a Trans Rest Area at PrideFest.
Is the trans hipness factor increasing where you live, and do you think this visibility is a good thing or a bad thing?
(Photo: Donna Rose as PrideFest grand marshall, from The Center’s Web site)