In 2025, Pride isn’t just a celebration: it’s a risk, a statement, and for many, a line in the sand. With over 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced across the U.S. in the past two years (many of them targeting trans people directly), it’s become increasingly necessary for trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming (TNBGNC) people to approach public visibility with both joy and strategy.

This guide offers clarity, preparation, and affirmation as we head into Pride season for this year. Whether you’re attending a protest, a parade, or a community gathering, your safety matters. And so does your right to exist fully and proudly in public spaces.

Understanding the Terrain: What Pride Looks Like Now

Even in traditionally “safe” cities, increased police presence, surveillance technology, and vague anti-drag or public decency laws have created uncertainties for TNBGNC attendees.

States like Tennessee and Florida have passed drag bans using language that could criminalize gender expression entirely. Several states have introduced or enacted laws restricting access to public bathrooms, banning gender-affirming care, or limiting legal recognition of nonbinary and trans identities.

Before attending Pride, it’s important to know how your state and city classify gender expression. 

• Check the Movement Advancement Project’s Equality Maps for up-to-date information on public accommodations and legal protections
• Review the ACLU’s Anti-LGBTQ Bill Tracker to understand pending legislation that might affect your rights
• Research local ordinances about public gathering and expression

Prepping for Pride: What to Bring, What to Know

If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready. Attending Pride safely starts with preparation. Depending on the size and type of event, it’s helpful to bring a “Power Kit” with essential supplies that prioritize your comfort and security.

Recommended items include:

• Government or chosen ID
  
• A fully charged phone and backup battery
  
• Water, snacks, and daily medications
  
• Cash (in case of card outages or bail support needs)
  
• Sunscreen, earplugs, and stim items for sensory regulation
  
• A printed or laminated emergency contact list
  

If you are undocumented or unhoused, carrying ID can pose a risk. In that case, reach out to local orgs beforehand like Trans Lifeline, which offers peer support and microgrants, or a legal aid collective in your area.

Remember, every Pride is different. Some are protest-led and police-free, others are corporate-sponsored and include heavy surveillance. Look into who’s organizing the event, what kind of policing is expected, and whether trans people, especially BIPOC and disabled trans folks, are involved in leadership. Transparency about these details often signals how safe or responsive an event will be.

Being There: Navigating Gendered Spaces and Crowd Dynamics

At any public event, visibly gender nonconforming people may face misgendering, harassment, or physical threats. Having a plan for how to respond (or not respond) can ease anxiety in the moment. You’re not obligated to correct someone, educate them, or engage if it doesn’t feel safe.

If you feel overwhelmed or overstimulated, move toward quiet corners (restroom areas, first aid stations, food vendors) or use grounding techniques like 5-4-3-2-1 sensory scans. It’s okay to leave a parade or go back home too. There’s no pressure to stay at an event if you feel uncomfortable.

Go with people you trust. Establish check-in times and have a “leave together” plan. If separated, share locations via your phone or create a code word to signal that something’s off.

Different Needs, Different Risks: Intersections Matter

There’s no one-size-fits-all safety plan for Pride. Each of us navigates risk through different lenses like race, class, disability, immigration status, and age, which shape how we move through public spaces.

If you’re a TNBGNC person of color, you may already anticipate racial profiling or over-policing. Consider reading the ACLU’s Know Your Rights guide before going to Pride events. Knowing your rights, especially in high-surveillance cities or conservative areas, can make the difference between feeling safe and protected. 

Disabled and neurodivergent folks may find that even “inclusive” Pride events lack basic accessibility like ramps, quiet spaces, or ASL interpreters. Carry what you need to regulate your senses or communicate clearly. Sins Invalid and Autistic Self Advocacy Network both offer great pre-event planning tools.

For undocumented people, Pride can be emotionally complex. Know that you are not legally obligated to disclose your immigration status, and that organizations like Immigration Equality and United We Dream offer emergency legal help and documentation guides. Avoid spaces with known ICE collaboration or increased law enforcement presence, and connect to community-led immigrant support groups if possible.

Young people and unhoused trans folks often face the most precarious conditions. Local LGBTQ+ centers like the SF LGBT Center, Trans Housing Atlanta Program (THAP), and Point of Pride can help with emergency shelter, hygiene resources, or medical care.

When Police Show Up: Know Your Rights

For many of us, police presence at Pride creates anxiety rather than reassurance. If approached by an officer:

• Ask clearly, “Am I being detained, or am I free to go?”
  
• You are not required to unlock your phone or provide passwords
  
• You have the right to remain silent and to request legal representation

Write important phone numbers in permanent marker on your arm or clothing in case your phone is unavailable. The National Bail Fund Directory lists local bail support resources.

If you see someone being detained, you can act as a legal witness. Film (where legal), take notes, and stay calm. But never jeopardize your safety to intervene unless you have a plan and backup.

After Pride: Rest Is Revolutionary

It’s normal to feel emotional after Pride. Give yourself time to decompress. That might mean logging off from social media, taking a nap, rehydrating, or doing something creative to process your experience.

If you were harmed during the event, seek support. Trans Lifeline, QTPoC Mental Health, and The Icarus Project all offer mental health tools rooted in community care.

Don’t feel pressured to post photos or share your story right away. And if you do, ask for consent before tagging others. Privacy is a safety issue, especially in times like these.

Pride Is Ours

This year, it’s more obvious than ever that Pride isn’t just a parade — it’s a battleground. But it’s also a site of rebirth, imagination, and collective resistance. Whether you attend or stay home, dress up or dress down, you are still part of the movement.

Pride was built by the generations that came before us with the most to fight for. This year, it belongs to the undocumented teen attending their first march. To the Black trans elder who hasn’t missed a protest in decades. To you.

Wherever you are, however you show up: stay safe, stay grounded, and own your power.

The post Pride is Ours: A Safety Guide for Trans, Nonbinary, & Gender-Nonconforming People appeared first on TransLash Media.

It’s day three of the Democratic National Convention, and Imara Jones is in Chicago to bring you the most essential conversations from this historic event. For today’s special episode of The Mess, Imara is joined by Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign and Human Rights Campaign Foundation. They dig into the Biden administration’s record on LGBTQ issues, the promise of a Harris presidency for civil rights progress, and the impact of the war in Gaza on this race.

The post Unpacking the DNC: Day 3 appeared first on TransLash Media.

Jamie Diaz is an artist who just wants to be seen for her work. The 66-year-old Mexican-American trans woman has been drawing and painting since she was 15. She uses vivid colors, surrealism, and self-portraits to tell complex stories about queerness, love, and human suffering throughout her work. And much of that work has been created behind prison walls, with paint brushes constructed from donated human hair.

Diaz spent the last 29 years incarcerated in men’s prisons. In the new short film “Love, Jamie” from director Karla Murthy, we get to know Diaz, her artwork, and her story through letters and phone calls shared with Gabriel Joffe, a trans person on the outside who has become her closest companion over the past 10 years. Joffe first started corresponding with Diaz in 2013 when they received a letter from her while working with Black & Pink, the prison abolitionist organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ people and folks living with HIV/AIDS who are impacted by the prison industrial complex. Murthy’s poignant film — which is now streaming on PBS — traces Joffe and Diaz’s decade-plus friendship through letters and shared art, aiming to tell a story not about an incarcerated trans woman, but one about a trans artist.

“You know what I want people to feel when they see my art?” Diaz says over the phone to Joffe in the film. “I want them to know that we’re good people.” That “we” can be read as many things — trans people, incarcerated individuals, and especially trans women of color affected by the U.S. prison system.

TransLash caught up with Joffe and “Love, Jamie” producer and director of photography Andrew Fredericks over a Zoom call to talk about the new short documentary film. The two reflected on the significance of chosen family and trans elders, what they learned about the experiences of trans women impacted by the carceral system, and shared an update on Diaz, who is now finally free after being granted parole at the end of May. 

Note: This video is only available to view within the United States.

TransLash: So good to meet you both. I just watched the film this week and admittedly cried the whole way through. It was just so powerful and so meaningful. To me as a trans person, to watch this felt really, really amazing and important. So thank you both for your work.

Andrew Fredericks: Thank you.

TransLash: Andrew, I’d love to start with you and ask, as the producer and the DP, what was it really that drew you to telling this story?

Andrew Fredericks: Well, the first thing that drew me to it was when I saw Jamie’s art. Dan Cooney pulled out a drawer. I was at his gallery filming for a different project, and then I said, well, what shows do you have coming up? Because Dan always has great shows, people, unknown artists, but really great ones. And he opened up this drawer and started pulling out these paintings and drawings. And I was like, wow! And then he started telling me Jamie’s story, that she was incarcerated in Texas and what Jamie, what Dan knew about her. So that was initially what drew me.

I said, this is a great story. This really needs to be told. And at the time, I was very busy with a couple other projects and I thought, I don’t really have time, but I really want to get this story told. And that’s when I reached out to my longtime friend and colleague, Karla Murthy, who’s the director and editor of the film. So I kind of passed just the basics onto Karla. And then she started digging into it, and she was drawn to it too.

And if I can speak for her, because I heard her talk about this is, then what really cemented it, the story was good. Her art was good. It had an interesting angle of an incarcerated trans woman. But Dan Cooney shared a letter that Jamie wrote to him. And that letter was just so honest and so revealing and so full of compassion and love and understanding and honesty. And then that’s when Karla called me and she said, this, I know what to do now. And so then, then I said, well, I’m all in. If you’re all in, I’m all in. And then we contacted Gabriel and were properly vetted by Gabriel. And then with the blessing of Gabriel and Jamie talked about it, and I guess trusted us, Karla and I, enough to tell their story. And it really is to me, it’s not just the story of a trans woman incarcerated, an artist. It is about art. But to me what’s under it —it’s a story of love and friendship and what can happen if you just give yourself to someone else, wholly. So I would say that’s what drew me to do it.

TransLash: And that relationship Gabriel, I mean, to have a decade of sharing letters with someone is so profound. Can you tell me a bit about what that was like, especially for you as a trans person on the outside to be communicating with a trans person on the inside?

Gabriel Joffe: I think it was really a beautiful experience for me to just have an older trans person in my life. You know, it’s not every day you meet trans elders. It was nice to have someone who had such wisdom about life and lessons to impart on me. You know, she’s really serves as that figure in my life of a trans person [who] has gone before. And obviously our life experiences are so different, but just being able to talk about things and just hear her perspective. I think that’s something that is rare. Just even the larger LGBT community,  to have elders. 

And it’s kind of wild because until last week I just had all of Jamie’s letters, this 10 years of letters and correspondence. But she walked out of prison with all my letters, and we kind of, that first night, sat down and she showed me scrapbooks she had made with pictures I had sent her. And she had in the first page, the very first letter she had received from me. It was also this wild chronicle of like the past 10 years of my life. I have shoe boxes of her letters, she had these, and she wanted me to bring them back to Denver with me for safekeeping. So now I have kind of the second half of the collection. It’s wild to see 10 years of letters I wrote. So it just feels nice to kind of now be in like a new chapter of our relationship.

TransLash: That’s wonderful to have it so completed, your letters and her letters together.

Andrew Fredericks: You have to collatehem now, so it’s back and forth.

Gabriel Joffe: Oh my gosh. That’s a project for another day.

TransLash: Gabriel, you received so much art from her over the years. Were there any particular pieces of Jamie’s work that really stood out to you and spoke to you the most over that decade?

Gabriel Joffe: I mean, really immediately, I think of Worlds Within Worlds. That was the first large scale piece. You know, I had received the illustrated letters, but that was in 2013. And I have a picture of myself holding it up. And that was one that I don’t think I’ll ever part with. It was the first piece she sent me. And just the colors, that’s when I really realized how Jamie’s use of color and how incredible it is and depth.

And it is her more abstract piece. But I felt like there was so much captured. It’s one of the deepest pieces I feel, to me, of her work. And so, yeah, Worlds Within Worlds. I think I’ll always remember receiving that and just being blown away and I think fully understanding her capabilities as an artist.

TransLash: Andrew, I’m curious, as the DP and producer, it must have been an incredible challenge to make this film where you can’t access one of your leads, right? You can’t actually get footage of her. Can you talk a bit about what that process was like and how it challenged you visually? Was that a hindrance or did that sort of give you more artistic license to get creative?

Andrew Fredericks: Well, I think at first, because you think about the obvious ways to make something first and you think, well, we have to try and interview Jamie. And we started going down that road a little bit. We started making contact with TDCJ [Texas Department of Criminal Justice]. But then at a certain point — and we were working on that, we’re gonna do it — but Karla started editing some, and we really realized that the film wasn’t about incarceration. Jamie was an incarcerated person. But we didn’t want the film to be about incarceration. And if you saw Jamie incarcerated in prison, that would be the image one would have of Jamie. And we didn’t want that. Because that’s what Jamie wanted, to be seen for who she was, not where she lived. And that meant getting to know Jamie through her words and through her art.

So then we consciously decided we’re not going to try and show Jamie incarcerated. And that would’ve been the only way to show her, would [be]  to get an interview in some kind of visitation room or through the glass. So it was kind of fortuitous that it was a little bit of trouble because it made us realize too.

So as far as the challenges, we still needed visuals and Jamie’s art provided a lot of the storytelling. But there was also, we wanted to show the isolation of being incarcerated. So we needed some visuals. And luckily, I spent a year in Texas working on a film, another film at the same time. And I came across this abandoned Texas prison facility. And so I just started, whenever I had a chance, I would go down there and just make images. I imagined myself being inside of there and looking out at the world outside. So I tried to create imagery from that prison facility that showed what Jamie might see, you know, I could only imagine it. And sometimes there’s flowers just beyond the fence. So I tried to show something that’s right there, but just out of reach, just on the other side of the fence. 

And then Karla and I talked a lot about the visuals. There’s a section [of the film] where Jamie talks about being young and feeling almost trapped by her queerness and being afraid to come out at first. And so when we’re in Houston, we tried to shoot things from behind fences and behind, so it wasn’t direct. So there was this idea. And then once it got to New York and there was the gallery show, everything was out in the open. There was no more behind anything. There was a shot even of Gabriel talking about some of their early trouble and [I] shot from behind this fence where we saw Gabriel. So we tried to make the visuals kind of [gestures with hands pushing inwardly] and then open up at the end. And then with the birds in the sky at the very end [of the film] representing total freedom. What’s freer than a bird. So just to wrap back around, yes. Not showing Jamie, at first we thought it was gonna be a problem, but it ended up really being liberating.

TransLash: Yeah, that shot at the end of the birds flying is so beautiful. And for you both, I’m curious — I know Gabriel you worked with Black and Pink and probably had some sort of insight into what the experiences are like for incarcerated trans folks. But I’m curious if through making this film, and Gabriel through your communications and relationship with Jamie, were there things that you learned about the particular experiences of particularly trans women in men’s prisons that you hadn’t known? What did this experience open your eyes to that you didn’t know of before?

Gabriel Joffe: Yeah. As someone who has never been impacted by that system personally, I think my motivation to join as an organizer with Black and Pink back in 2012 was conversations I would be having with other queer activists or books. It was mostly through books I was reading, primarily “Queer (In)Justice [The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States]” was a really important text for me. 

So it was books, but then what really I think the biggest learning was as I joined Black and Pink and volunteered during their weekly mail processing and read hundreds of letters from all sorts of LGBTQ folks that are incarcerated across the country — those individuals and their experiences, I just started to learn so much more. And then when I connected with Jamie — and I didn’t know it’d be a 10 plus year, I didn’t know what it’d become. Because I feel like you never know what a relationship will turn into. But through her specifically of just what she would share, from mundane things — like she would describe in extreme detail what her cell looked like, and she’d say, I have a toilet over here and then I have the floor here and I lay out my paintbrush. She would just in such detail, especially if she moved, got transferred, she would say exactly what her cell looked like, what she was eating to things like commissary. 

Even in staying in touch with her, that changed from letters to then the electronic messaging system and you have to kind of buy digital stamps. So I got to learn the kind of ins and outs of the apparatus surrounding the prison, different companies you have to interact with, whether you want to write or visit. And even now in the film you see just a decade of letters and, about six months before Jamie was released, Texas moved to a digital mail system.

So there’s no letters going in anymore. The technology has changed. So Jamie would no longer, if she was still inside and up until her release, she was no longer able to receive physical mail from me. So I learned a lot about that, just the whole apparatus as well as Jamie’s personal experiences.

TransLash: Andrew, how about you? Is there anything that opened your eyes that you hadn’t known before in the process of making this?

Andrew Fredericks: Oh, so much. I mean, I grew up around, I guess you could call it criminal justice. My mother used to run, when I was a kid, ran halfway houses for men at that time, only, getting out of prison and transitioning in. So I had a basis from my mom about the troubles of reentry and also about treating everyone, even if they’re incarcerated, they’re human beings and they have their own problems. So I had a little bit of background, but as far as, like Gabriel says, the actual apparatus of prison, of being incarcerated, is just byzantine. And then there’s people always, companies looking to profit off of it, whether they’re the people you have to buy the stamps from or if you want to make a phone call.

But through Jamie, because once we made Jamie’s acquaintance, I started exchanging mail also with Jamie and doing calls. And I just got an inside view of what it was like to be incarcerated. And it really opened my eyes to what that experience was like from someone who was telling me about it. And it made me appreciate, number one, my own privilege and my own freedom. And how much just the tiniest things one takes for granted if you’re not incarcerated.

I’ll never forget the day when — and this happened to both Karla and I, we had a similar experience. — I was on the phone with Jamie and I was on my front porch and I live in the country. And I was complaining about how much it was raining. “Oh, Jamie, it’s been raining.” But Jamie said, “when I get outta here, the first thing I want to do is go out and stand in the rain.” And it just made me realize just the simplest thing like that, that she couldn’t do. And so that, and as a filmmaker, I hope to always create empathy for other people. I’d rather create empathy, then knowledge. And so if that made me open my empathy up, I’m hoping that the film does the same for all incarcerated people. 

But then Jamie shared the added being trans, you know, and the troubles that that brought to her sometimes within the system. It’s a dehumanizing place and it’s a macho place. So Jamie had to overcome even that. And it also brought me into a world of people who I didn’t know, a world of trans people. And it’s such a beautiful community. It’s such a beautiful, welcoming community and it’s so under attack. And so that’s the other thing we wanted to do, is be an ally. You know, I’ll never fully understand the inner, what it means to be trans. But I understand human feelings, and so we hope that the film opens up people’s empathy for people who are incarcerated, but also Jamie’s hope, to understand “we’re good, loving people.” So that’s what I learned.

TransLash: Gabriel, what do you hope audiences take away from this  story and from your relationship with Jamie?

Gabriel Joffe: You know, I think that’s changed over the past year of the film being out. But I think presently just, first of all, the incredible art that Jamie creates. She’s an artist. She wants to be known for her art. So just more people seeing her art, and I think there’s so much creativity and talent of folks that are incarcerated that we just miss out on in society. And so I think Jamie’s art stands on its own. She’s an incredible artist. And I think there’s other people whose talent we’re not able to see. So I’m just glad that the film gives Jamie’s art a platform. I think also just especially, I hope this film is an uplifting to the queer community, that they see that there are elder trans folks in the community and there’s love and connection and that chosen family is beautiful.

TransLash: Mmm. Definitely. I think we have time for one more question. Gabriel, I know that you had met Jamie when she was released last week. I read about it in a story from them. Can you talk a bit about what that experience was like to be there to receive her?

Gabriel Joffe: You know, my dear friend Spinney was there, who’s been part of this

journey from the beginning, lived with me when I received those first letters from Jamie. And so it was great to have them there. Because we were there waiting for about an hour and a half and I was kind of going through many stages of emotion. You know, at one point I was trying not to cry. And then another point I was like, thinking of all the things I forgot to bring. And then was just kind of cycling through all the emotions. And it was down pouring, thunder. But I think even up until even we left the entire compound, the apparatus of the prison was very present. We had to stay in the parking lot. There was even at one point when I saw her, I just started walking forward and they yelled at me to step back. You know, the apparatus was very present. It was an incredible moment. And it was clear we needed to — we didn’t have time or space to kind of linger. It was kind of, first order business was just leaving the property.

But one of the first things — Jamie sat in the front seat and I was able to hand her the copy of her comic book that recently was published and she saw it for the first time and held it. And just seeing her flip through the pages and see her art in that form within the first hour of her, the first 20 minutes of her release. That was just super meaningful for me to witness her just hold her art and see it and see evidence that it’s out in the world.

TransLash: That’s so wonderful that she got to receive that from you. Thank you both so much. It was such a pleasure chatting with you.

Andrew Fredericks: I just wanna add that as part of my education and my understanding about trans issues and stories, early on somehow I came across TransLash and it’s been one of my regular reads now. I love when I get the newsletter. It’s really been something. I feel so glad that we’re gonna be a part of TransLash because it’s been like, my link besides, you know, Jamie and Gabriel to understanding the stories and of that community. So thank you.

TransLash: Oh, that’s so wonderful to hear. Thank you!

“Love, Jamie” is now streaming and available to watch on all PBS platforms including PBS.org, the PBS app, and the PBS American Masters YouTube.

To view Jamie Diaz’s published art and support her re-entry through her Solidarity Fund and through purchasing her artwork, check out her website JamieDiazArt.com.

Did you find this resource helpful? Consider supporting TransLash today with a tax-deductible donation. Did we miss anything? Let us know!

The post The Powerful Story of an Incarcerated Trans Artist: A Q&A With ‘Love, Jamie’ Film Star and Producer appeared first on TransLash Media.

On June 19, 2024, Team TransLash hosted a Juneteenth event with WNYC at The Greene Space in New York, NY, featuring a screening of American Problems, Trans Solutions, which will have its broadcast premiere on PBS World on 6/24 at 9/8c.

Watch the replay below and access the full transcript. If you’re still looking for more behind-the-scenes content, we’ve included some cute snaps further down in this recap! 

About ‘American Problems, Trans Solutions’

In American Problems, Trans Solutions, Imara Jones travels across the country to meet and share the stories of leaders on the frontlines of change: housing advocate Kayla Gore; Breonna McCree, a champion for economic empowerment; and Oluchi Omeoga, who fights for the rights of migrants. 

Despite the record-breaking number of anti-trans bills passed in 2023, these three Black trans people are addressing critical issues surrounding economic empowerment and human dignity with heart and vision. 

Access the transcript from our Juneteenth event below.

Opening Remarks: Transcript

Jennifer Keeney Sendrow, Executive Producer, The Greene Space + Multiplatform Content:

Hello. Welcome to The Green Space. How many of you’re here for the first time ever? Wow. Almost everybody. How awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here tonight and spending this beautiful holiday evening with us. Also, Happy pride. How are you all doing?

I feel like you’re already in screening mode. We’re gonna get there in just a moment.

So are any of you members of WNYC or WQXR? A few. Okay, great. So just wanna let you know that The Greene Space, what we do here is connected to New York Public Radio. So when you listen to WNYC or WQXR, or you read Gothamist, that’s all us.

So everything that we do is supported by members, by the public or publicly funded. So appreciate your support and tune in. Come back. That’s my big ask of you. Please do come back, especially if you’re here for the first time. My small ask of you is, could you silence your phones if you haven’t already done that? Just so it doesn’t disrupt the talk back or the screening.

Now I’m very honored to finally have this collaboration with TransLash happening in The Greene Space, because some of you might know that we in 2020 did an entire year of monthly digital events with TransLash when Imara Jones was our Journalist-In-Residence here, our first and so far only Journalist-In-Residence here in The Greene Space.

So having her here in person finally on our stage is really, really awesome…So I’m really honored to be able to introduce her: she’s an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning creator of TransLash Media, named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2023.

And her groundbreaking work in journalism and narrative has profoundly shifted the cultural landscape for transgender individuals in the U.S.

So please join me in welcoming a true trailblazer and advocate for equality, Imara Jones.

Imara Jones:

First of all, I just wanted to let you all know that of course tonight we are encouraging you to get the word out on social media about this event. So this is the hashtag that you should use. It’s long, but it also captures the name of the show. So make sure that you use that in everything that you do.

I also have a bit of housekeeping that I have to do at every single event or else I get reprimanded by our social media team, and that is to encourage everyone to sign up for our TransLash Newsletter. So if you go TransLash.org, it’s pretty easy to figure it out.

Sign up for our newsletter. It really is worth your time. Once a week you’ll see all the things that we have going on at TransLash, but more importantly, it’s a great way to stay informed about the trans community, including anti-trans legislation. So make sure that you go do that.

Okay, now I’ve done my homework. I can start talking about the things I wanna talk about. 

Today is Juneteenth (read our guide here). And one of the most important things about Juneteenth, and the reason why it’s a celebration, is because it marks the time when the last enslaved people of African descent in the United States learned that they were free. 

We don’t celebrate the first day that enslaved Africans were free. We don’t celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation. 

We celebrate the last day that enslaved people were free.

And the reason why that is, is a very simple notion and a very real thing and a deep understanding that enslaved people know and understood, which is that no one is free until everybody is free.

That’s right. There’s no such thing as freedom for part of us. There has to be freedom for everybody.

And what I think is so powerful about the three stories that you all are going to

hear tonight is that Kayla and Breonna and Oluchi live that principle of Juneteenth every single day of their lives.

They have devoted themselves and continue to devote themselves to that simple understanding that until the most marginalized people are able to be free, no one is free.

And so it is fitting that we are doing this screening tonight with them centering their stories on Juneteenth.

So let’s just give them a round of applause even before we see it.

It is fitting that this event is here because as Jen said, we wanted to be doing this once a month for over a year and we had grand plans to do so. But then the pandemic arrived and changed all of our plans, but in so many ways opened up so many powerful conversations that we wouldn’t have been able to have people if we had only centered #LivesAtStake here in New York.

There are certain people in the room who were in #LivesAtStake, but we were able to include people like Cecilia, who is no longer with us, she was also a part of that.

And Elisa Crespo when she was running for City Council and so many other voices. And so I’m glad that we can finally, you know, come back full circle and be here together in this space.

For those of you all who don’t know, TransLash is a narrative change organization where we use the power of journalism and nonfiction storytelling to center the humanity of trans people.

Understanding that the violence against our community in all of its forms, the ways in which people are targeting us, comes down to the fact that people don’t see us as human.

And so we want to correct that as an organization and we try to do that in as many ways as possible.

We do so through written articles and we do that through films such as the one you’re going to see tonight.

We do so through zines and we do so through not one, but now three podcasts.

It started essentially in similar ways that you’re going to see tonight, where in 2018 I was encouraged by some of my colleagues who are journalists to tell my story about what it was like to be trans during the Trump era. Kind of the first wave of, you know, being targeted.

And the first thing that I said was, no one’s gonna care about that. And when I heard myself say those words, I immediately knew two things. I knew that one, that wasn’t what I actually believed because I had spent my entire life understanding the power of story and its ability to change and to motivate.

And secondly, I knew that if that was an unheard thought that I had in myself, that there were others who thought the same thing.

And if that were the case, that was the predicate for us to be harmed.

And so I called in a favor from a friend of mine who worked on reality television in Atlanta. And we essentially traveled the country  for a year doing the first docuseries for TransLash, which remains among some of our most watched videos, even as they are six years old.

But what eventually started with no money and a called in favor, I mean even the first logo was a bootleg design that he called in a favor from his friend who owed him a favor.

The whole thing has now grown into a team of people across the country who helped to produce the award-winning content that you all see all the time. And many of those team members are here and you should get to know them. If you’re a TransLash team member. or have you ever worked with Trans Lash, just raise your hand in some way. 

See there are a lot of, and you know, these are a smattering of some of the awards that we’ve gotten. And maybe after tonight and af0ter this film comes out next week, there’ll be some more. We’ll add to the list. Yeah, thank you, you can clap for those awards.

But a great way to learn about all of the things that TransLash is doing is in our brand new as of today website, which launched, which not only is an easy way for you to be able to see our array of content, but we also launched a new trans legislation dashboard, which makes it really easy for non-experts to see what’s going on with anti-trans legislation, what’s going on in your state.

And we did that in partnership with the Trans Legislation Tracker. So we’re thrilled to be able to do that. So there’s lots of content, lots of capabilities. So make sure you go to TransLash.org as of today to see our new website, but just not right now, here. Later on. Don’t get distracted to see all of the things that we are doing.

So that then brings us to how we are all here tonight. And essentially what happened is that during the George Floyd uprising in 2020, Time Magazine wanted to do an entire issue, which was devoted to reimagining America, right?

What would a new American Revolution look like? And my name is one of those names on the cover who was asked to reimagine what that looks like.

I wrote a piece about the vision and the power of Black trans people and the necessity of centering Black trans visions in a new America. That there was essentially no way for us to reimagine society without the contributions of Black trans people.

Because when you live in a society that’s not working for you, that makes you the perfect person to reimagine what that society would look like.

And that if you could redesign that society to work for the people that it’s not functioning for, that means you could build a society that works for everyone, right?

It removes us from a zero sum conversation and expands the idea of what’s possible.

Now for the next three years, people would ask me in various places, “what do you think is the most underreported story with trans people?” And I would always say, I think it is the leadership and the vision of Black trans people working to transform their communities one at a time.

And I would say it in so many times, in many ways because I had the hope that someone else was going to do the story.

You know, as a journalist, I don’t always feel like I have to tell every single story. It’s great if other people pick up these stories and tell them and see them at other places.

So I said it on NPR, not once, but twice. I said it on the PBS News Hour, I said it on MSNBC, I said it a bunch. 

And I kept thinking that some enterprising journalists, ’cause journalists are always looking for new stories to cover. we’re going to like dig deep and find the leaders that I was referencing and do an amazing story.

But at some point I realized that that wasn’t gonna happen. And it was a story that I believed was essential to be told.

And so once I get certain ideas in my head. I am annoying and I don’t stop. And so I didn’t stop.

So I got this idea and I went first to a bunch of people that I knew finally had a, a good meeting at the WNET Group. And you know, like all these meetings when you go in and pitch something, the first meeting is Aha. Yeah, okay. You know, like, but I kept going back and kept going back and finally they said, all right, well the only way to stop you from being annoying is to say that we’ll work with you on it.

And we did and then worked really hard to find stories that we thought were emblematic of this particular phenomenon. And that’s how logically we landed on these three people’s stories, who are you going to hear tonight.

And then we went out and found the right partners to be able to work with us to produce that: Naz, and then Tiler,  whose names you will see in the credits and who deserves so much of the credit for realizing this particular vision.

And then we set out across the country to make this film, you know, being trailed by a camera and asking people to tell their stories. So that’s why we are here tonight.

And what we are going to do is to listen to the really powerful visions of these three people that if our country actually adopted, if they were taking taken to scale would, be transformative.

And so, without further ado, I want to show you for the very first time in the world, American Problems, Trans Solutions: focusing on Kayla Gore, Breonna McCree, and Oluchi Omeoga

So as they get settled, I wanted to do two things, which is to first welcome everyone who is joining us on the livestream for The Greene Space and also on TransLash’s YouTube page.

You all were not able to see the film, but you will be able to see it on June 24th. So next week at 9:00 PM Eastern. But check your local listing as they say, because it’ll change.

It is being broadcast through our broadcast partner, PBS World, who this would not be possible without them opening and providing millions of viewers to us.

And so actually the head of PBS World is in the audience, Chris Hastings. So I just wanted to thank Chris. Chris came down from Boston. But anytime anyone from Boston comes from New York, you know they’re willing to do it. Sorry, Boston. Sorry Boston.

And secondly, I just wanted to let you all know that as well, each of you has a copy of the TransLash Zine on your seats that just came out today. It’s our latest zine and it’s uplifting, again, the voices and the stories of Black trans people, specifically Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.

Everyone online, you can go online to TransLash.org/zines and you can actually read it online. So, you’re not being excluded by not being here for that.

Thank you all so much.

Talk Back Q&A: Transcript

Imara Jones:

I want to know what it is like for you all to see yourselves up there. ’cause I don’t know how you feel, but mostly my days are, you know, answering emails and having to return calls and I’m running late and I’m in the drudgery of the work. I shouldn’t say drudgery, but I’m in the details of the work. Is it drudgery? Okay. 

I’m in the details. Okay. It is, it is. It’s another, be real, my Slack messages are pinging and I’m annoyed. So like that’s where I am mostly.

I’m not thinking about all the things that we’re doing.

But you know, I’m wondering if taking a step back how you all see yourselves, and your work…

Breonna McCree:

First, I can say for me, first, I just wanna say thank you. Can we give it up to Imara Jones for putting this together? For bringing us all together? Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. 

I would say for me, stepping back from the depths of the work and watching it, invigorates me to continue to do this work. I remember calling you just about a week ago saying, I’m tired of this. I’m done with this wor. I’m through with these people. but watching this gives, oh, this is what I do.

Because in the work, you lose exactly what you do because you’re just in the bowels of it. But to see it and reimagine, oh this is what I do, okay, yes, I’m gonna continue to do this.

So thank you for that. 

Oluchi Omeoga:

Yeah, I feel really similarly. I…a transparent moment: I hate watching myself on TV. This is the first time I’ve ever seen that. I like made it a point ’cause I was like, I do not like seeing myself.

But I’m also very grateful for like, just seeing all of the things, not only that I’ve done, but my comrades on the stage have also done, right.

I’ve been working with Kayla [Gore] for like six years now, and like I know about My Sista’s House, and like I know the impact that they’ve had. But just like watching it, I’m like, damn, she’s really putting in that work. So I don’t know if I can swear on PBS. Dang.

But like actually putting in that work and just like the brilliance of like Black trans leadership. Like I know it theoretically, but to see it is something that we’re not really shown, which is like another reason why I’m so grateful, these three are of hundreds of people, right? There are Black trans leaders in this room that I know do amazing work.

That’s right. But we’re not visible, as in the ways that we should be. So yeah, feeling surreal but also very humbled right now. Just like, yeah.

Kayla Gore:

In short, just everything that these two wonderful people said. But it also is a moment for me just to like, really to celebrate. It’s celebratory when we get to join in spaces like this.

I have come all the way from Memphis, Tennessee to New York City and like the red carpet has been laid out because of the work that you’ve done. Yeah. Which is not something  that Black trans people from the South really get to experience.

So being able to see us on the big screen is amazing.

And then the impact stories that you got from our residents, like we don’t do a lot of the that. Mm. So hearing it for the first time from a resident is like, it’s like music to my ears. Like we’re, we’re really getting it right. So, yeah.

Imara Jones:

I mean, I say all the time, first of all Oluchi,  you’re like, you’re saying that you’re like, you know, experiencing humility. I don’t say I can be humble in this outfit. Like, have you all seen this?

Oluchi Omeoga:

Every, everyone on stage got the memo but Kayla, it was supposed to be hues of red.

But you know, we can Photoshop something. 

Imara Jones:

I mean Kayla and, and Breonna like that makes sense to me. You know what I mean? Like, they’re always gonna do this, but I’ve never seen you like this. I have. You have? Yes.

Oluchi Omeoga:

I’m a Leo, so I’m always on 10. Okay. With the Libra rising. So the aesthetics are important.

Imara Jones:

Okay. Good to know. Good to know. 

Breonna McCree:

He left a part of it in the audio.

Imara Jones:

You know, one of the things that happens with stories, is that the stories that we tell actually are one of the ways that we signify who matters in the country.

Right? Like the stories that get told are the ones that we think are important, right? We always hear about George Washington. We never hear about the people that he enslaved or the people in the Continental Army who he betrayed, right? Who were Black and promised all sorts of things.

So, you know, there’s, the stories that we tell shape what we say is important. And one of the things that can happen is skepticism. Like when someone comes to your door and is like, “Hey, I wanna tell your story,” right?  

Even if they’re Black and trans, you’ll be like, “well what are you gonna say?” What are you gonna do?”

And I’m wondering like, what led you to say I’m going to go with this, I’m going to trust my story with someone else. Do you know what I mean? Because I think that like, there’s so many ways in which there’s a sense of betrayal right on. And that we can carry from our lives. And so I’m wondering, how did trust come up in this for you?

Kayla Gore:

For me, coming from a national organization working with Oluchi at the Transgender Law Center and having a comms team, and having them vet different media outlets before we give them our stories or tell them our nitty-gritty of, you know, the work that we’re doing.

We didn’t have to do that because we knew that it was coming from good stuff. 

We knew it was coming from people who are familiar with our experiences in life and how we experience life. So I don’t think it was, hmm, let me vet these people.

I knew of TransLash, I knew of you, and I knew of PBS of course, I grew up on that. That waslike the freest television ever.

Breonna McCree:

I loved The Electric Company and Sesame Street.

Oluchi Omeoga:

It was so funny though, ’cause I remember vividly like, the back and forth that was happening, because like Shelby actually texted me and Shelby was like, you need to talk to Imara. I was like, I didn’t get a call from Imara.

And then eventually we like got connected, and it wasn’t necessarily like a trusting, and like you telling the story. For me, it was more so like, why do you want me? I was like, there are so many other Black trans leaders here doing amazing work.

I was like, I think you were mistaking me with Ol. I think that’s who you want, and then you’re like, no it’s, it’s like we want you. And I think for me it was less about trusting you because I already knew around like all of the amazing documentaries that you did and the amazing narrative shift work that you’ve done, it was mainly like, I think you’re looking for the wrong person, you’re looking for the wrong nigga, and it’s not me, it might be someone else.

But I think that like once you were like, no, like we want you, then there was like a

re-trusting in myself and my own leadership that I had to do.

I think another really vulnerable moment was like my family being in the documentary and just like trusting like, that was like another hurdle for me because like my organizing work and my personal work usually is very siloed.

And so like that was like one of the first instances that it was kind of like a come together moment and also moment in which like my family got to hear about the work that I do in a way that’s not just like, I’m on MSNBC or Fox News and someone’s yelling at me ’cause I’m in the middle of a street.

Imara Jones:

I mean also, especially for the two people on the ends, but for all of you, we got very intimate, right? We’re in your mama’s house, we are in your house. We are hearing stories of you from, you know, remembrances that are extremely intimate. We’re literally in your parents’ house and your house. It’s, you know, it’s an intimate process.

So yeah, I just wanna express appreciation because we can only show as good a story as y’all allow us to show. Right. And you allowed us to show some, some really good stories.

So audience, I’m going to, this is your cue to think of your questions. We’re gonna take a few questions from the audience in a second.

This would be my last question.

So I’m telling y’all so that when we don’t, we don’t want that awkward moment when I’m like, when’s the question? And everyone’s like, okay, so we already had the awkward moment. It was just then. 

So right now when I say you’re gonna have your question:

We’re in an election year, and there’s not an issue that you all are working on that isn’t in the center of this particular campaign. And I’m wondering:

If you had an ability to call the people that are running together for office in a room, if they invited you and said, “what is the thing that I should know about what your community is facing from your vantage point, and the thing that I should do about it,” what would you say?

And let’s start with you Kayla, and go down the list.

Kayla Gore:

Oh, they put me in the hot seat. Okay.

Imara Jones:

Y’all are doing really well. I didn’t tell you these questions. So you’re doing quite well, I have to say, right?

Kayla Gore:

So I would definitely, we, we just got a new mayor, mayor Paul Young and we’ve been included in their budget as far as transitional housing funding goes.

So I would definitely like, you know, like hone in on, hey you’ve given us a little bit, now we need more. We’ve shown you what we can do in one year with a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Now let us show you what we can do. Like we can really, really flex out. So I definitely would like push the issue around housing policies and funding, right? Yeah. More availability of HUD funding for specific LGBT trans-specific housing as related to emergency transitional and permanent housing.

There’s funding already allocated federally, but it doesn’t really make it to organizations that are led by Black and brown trans people. Whether that’s because of capacity issues, whether that’s because of language barriers or disability issues or, or barriers. We just don’t feel into receiving that money and we have to find it other places like we did at My  Sistah’s House, which is through mutual aid; through people knowing people and saying, Hey, these people are worthy of your support down there in the South.

So I would definitely push toward more federal, state and local policies around funding and housing.

Imara Jones:

Yeah, we shown you what we can do with a couple hundred thousand, to how out a couple of million is what you’re saying. Yeah. I mean fundamentally also like the idea of the way that you instantly remove barriers to housing as ownership.

Like you instantly creating wealth by saying actually here’s a house and here’s land. And I always think that that’s,  ’cause it totally shifted my own point of view is like, well why do we have this process of essentially making it hard for people to, to be housed and to own?

That’s a choice. And I think that your program shows that.

Kayla Gore:

I agree. We modeled our emergency shelter off a housing first model and I feel like we’ve created a whole new model for how we house people through our transition and permanent housing. ‘Cause the tiny houses is like, people have a million questions and I’m like, oh these are all good questions.

But the answer is still like, yeah, very low barrier, no deposits, no…some things I can’t say because of insurance reasons. But – Yeah, there’s a lot of things that we that, that are typically done when people are, are leasing spaces or buying properties or land that we do not put people through.

We don’t ask a lot of invasive questions about income or income verification. It’s a really, like, I wish I had the process. I also wish I had a nice home for a lot of folks it’s their first place by themselves and they’re like, you can see, you saw they’re really, really nice homes and trans people, we really don’t get that experience in our lifetimes. Yes.

Imara Jones:

Breonna, what would you say?

Breonna McCree:

I would put them all in the room and say, you are the problem. I would say, yes, because they are, I would say your patriarchal systems are the problem that is killing America.

That is killing the land that we’re on.

But I would also say if you were to be able to shift the foundation for the most marginalized people, let me give you a blueprint on how to do that.

Because if you shift that foundation for us, then that lifts the foundation for everyone else.

Yeah. So I mean because with our program today, we have created almost 60 new entrepreneurs. Yes, we are working with the city to put them in pop-up shops all over the Bay area.

We are working with another project to actively put them in storefronts in the Tenderloin and beyond. And with extra funding we could fill the vacant storefronts in San Francisco.

Nordstrom’s, which is in one of the biggest mall is one is in one of the biggest malls in San Francisco, through our entrepreneurship program, we could fill that space in Nordstrom’s with trans and non-binary folks. That would be transformative in San Francisco,

a space that really it says “that we are a safe space for you. Come to us, we are your sanctuary city.”

Let me help you make this a sanctuary city for our most marginalized folks because it looks good for you as well. But it also helps us create ownerships and business. ‘Cause we’ve learned once we get in the door, then we hire each other and we make space for more of us to come in.

And I love how you said the Underground Railroad to the houses. ‘Cause we all are creating an underground railroad for Black and brown trans people. Let’s continue that.

But definitely they are still the problem.

Imara Jones:

Well, what’s not the problem are your shoes. They’re fabulous. Absolutely. What would you, I mean especially now, there’s so much going on. I mean, I’m being euphemistic, but there’s so much going on with immigration just in the past week and one of the things that we didn’t necessarily get to talk about is the way in which you personally, right?

Sometime and other people in BLMP get calls in the night of Black and brown trans people who are trapped on the other side of the border, because the border is now the only way to get into the United States, and have to try to bring them across using asylum laws. just in your area right now. What would you say?

Oluchi Omeoga:

Yeah, definitely ditto. I think too, I just, I’ve personally just been very unenthused about federal immigration policy in general, but I think the United States western powers have to be responsible for forced migration, period.

Yeah. The reason why people are leaving their homelands is not because they want to leave their homelands. If you live on an island, why would you wanna leave that? People are leaving their homelands because of Christian imperialism, because of patriarchy, gender-based violence, homophobia, transphobia.

And so because you are the cause of that problem, you need to be responsible for the solution. And what the United States is doing in this moment is the exact opposite.

We didn’t really talk about like what asylum looks like, but regardless of it’s a Democrat or a Republican in office, immigrants specifically will always be the first people that they attack.

And so the solution for that is one, get rid of detention.

A lot of folks don’t understand that if you present yourself and you seek asylum, you are automatically detained for an indefinite amount of time. Meaning that you are put in an immigrant prison. 

Get rid of detention for all folks who are seeking asylum.

I think the other thing that some folks don’t really conceptualize, is even when we think about these social services that we want folks to have: homes, we want folks to have economic freedom, that does not exist if you are not a citizen of the United States.

If you are undocumented or under-documented, you do not receive those same social services, and you might not even have a working document or a travel document. So you can’t even travel to see someone that might be dying in your home country.

And so why are there restrictions on folks who are who coming here because of the different tactics that we have used, while then restricting their migration even within the United States?

So just shifting our narrative on what we, what that looks like when we think about immigrants and migrant folks.

Imara Jones:

Thank you for that. Questions.

Oh, there’s one question in the back.

Audience Member:

Thanks for sharing your stories. I wanted to ask, what common personal themes or struggles do you see that Black trans leaders experience that don’t normally get represented or shared?

Oluchi Omeoga:

Can you repeat the question again? Sorry.

Audience Member:

Absolutely. What common personal themes or struggles do you see Black trans leaders experience that don’t normally get represented or shared? Yeah.

Breonna McCree:

I don’t wanna say our struggles because I feel like our struggles are always shared. That’s why  the work was created, because of our struggles and our disparities.

What doesn’t get shared is the way we create community. Mm.

The way we love on each other.

The way we create families.

the way like when we are in the streets, how we come together to survive in the streets.

I was on the streets for five years and I created family on the streets.

I met a woman that saved my life on the streets. Those are the stories that need to be shared.

I’m not gonna cry. I got on lashes. 

Imara Jones:

Too late. You already cried. 

Breonna McCree:

But those are the stories that need to be shared.

Kayla Gore:

Yeah, I would definitely agree. We share a lot when, and we go to therapy afterwards and

sometimes before, and then sometimes in that moment that is therapy for us to be able to share like our trans, like things that have transgressed us throughout our lives.

But I would like to see more moments of joy and liberation because we talk about getting there, but there are moments of joy and there are moments of liberation that we really don’t get to relish in.

This is one of those moments. So I think like having this broadcasted is another moment of like sharing that.

Like, we’re not just like, like look at us. We, we, we fine and fly up here.

So it’s not all bad. I said that to say it’s not all bad. We really do get to enjoy our lives and we get to see people enjoying their lives and their lives changing.

Like your story about Dolores, like that moved me. And then hearing that you’re paying it forward to other people and giving them an opportunity, not just giving them words of encouragement, but you’re giving them words of encouragement and there are tangible things attached to those words, which makes a whole heck of a difference.

Imara Jones:

Yeah. Yes. Right here.

Audience Member:

So first of all, I think there could be a film about each of you. And I hope that there is someday because I, the, the way the film was done was so well done. It leaves me wanting more, you know.

Specifically, I’m so curious about like where you said there’s over half a million dollars in grants given out and I think that was in, in the movie for Breonna’s.

Yeah. Yeah. Where did that come from? Is that from the city budget?

Breonna McCree:

Yeah, that’s from the city and county of San Francisco.  And I have to say thanks to Mayor Breed, our city mayor in San Francisco, she really invests in economic empowerment and ending trans homelessness.

She really puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to investing in the uplifting of trans and non-binary people in San Francisco.

We just recently passed a bill saying that San Francisco is now a sanctuary city on paper and we are the only city that has a Transgender History Month that is recognized in the

state of California due to Mayor Breed and Jupiter Peraza of The Transgender District.

Imara Jones:

One last question we have time for. Yep. Right here.

Audience Member:

What can the rest of us do to help?

Breonna McCree:

Money, money, money, money, period. 

Support the work that we do? Yeah. If you can’t donate money to the cause, uplift and amplify our story, share ’em on social media.

More visibility means more eyes on the things that we do for the people that we serve.

Oluchi Omeoga:

I would also say research the different movements that we are coming from, like what locally is happening in terms of housing for trans people where you live. 

What is happening as far as economic liberation? What is happening on the immigration front?

Because I think that one thing is the, the funding piece, but I think that there needs to be more collective political education around all of the things that are happening so that when we do have a moment where there’s like a mobilization, folks are more versed and more like, they’re more privy to what’s going on and they understand the fights and the local movements that are moving that work.

Kayla Gore:

I would agree with what both of them said. In addition to like people power. 

We are building houses and a lot of times it takes people and a community to help people get acclimated to home ownership. And that can look like cutting grass, helping them build a fence, like fixing things around their homes.

We have people who are 76 years old in some of our homes. So just, you know, just checking in on them and making sure that they’re not isolated in their new home.

So I think we really look for a lot of volunteers. I know y’all are up here in New York, but if you got a auntie or cousin that’s down there in the South, or they coming through Memphis, tell ’em to look us up, hit us up and you know, stop by. I will always have some outdoor work for you to do.

It’s true. I didn’t get this tan for nothing. It’s absolutely true. And it wasn’t on a beach.

Imara Jones:

I would also say that it’s just also extremely important to think that one, trans people are important. Like that’s a thing that most people don’t think about, but it actually, once you accept that, it shifts things.

And I also think understanding the centrality of trans lives to this moment and to this election, I would also add to that. I think that that’s a really important thing to hold onto as well.

Well thank you all so much. 

We want to invite you to hang around for the next half an hour or so. The drinks are on us

outside. There’s an open bar.

There’s also a step and repeat where you can take pictures of yourself, of the people who are in the film with each other. We would love for you all to do that.

Please make sure that you use the hashtag #AmericanProblemsTransSolutions and remember to watch on the 24th at 9:00 PM Eastern. But if you’re out beyond the East Coast, check your local listing because it changes station to station. Check your local PBS listing. 

And thank you all so much for coming. And Happy Juneteenth and Happy Pride. 

Happy Juneteenth.

Behind-the-Scenes at Translash’s Juneteenth Event

Enjoy some of the highlights from our American Problems, Trans Solutions special screening event with WNYC’s The Greene Space!

Did you find this resource helpful? Consider supporting our work today with a tax-deductible donation.

The post Juneteenth ‘American Problems, Trans Solutions’ Screening Event appeared first on TransLash Media.

New York, USA – June 7, 2014: Facade of the New York Times headquarters building in Midtown Manhattan. Photo credit: mizoula

The New York Times’ Statement in response to The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: a Plot Against Equality Season 2 Episode 5 Capturing The New York Times:

“We reject the claim that our coverage is biased. The role of an independent news organization is to report on issues of public importance and follow the facts where they lead. 

As part of that mission, we’ve reported fully and fairly on transgender issues ranging from challenges and prejudice faced by the community, to the fight for expanding rights and freedoms, and open debates about care. Our coverage has been rigorously reported and edited, respectful of the people we’re covering and sensitive to the moment. It is providing a vital service to the LGBTQ+ community and our readership. 

The New York Times has published hundreds of articles — with a collective word count well over 330,000 — specifically on discrimination against transgender people and/or anti-transgender legislation since January 2020.”

TransLash’s Unanswered Questions of The New York Times

#1

How does The New York Times respond to our reporting that found the paper is laundering the myth of social contagion and other anti-trans disinformation in its pages? If the paper claims not to have an anti-trans bias, why doesn’t it properly contextualize or qualify anti-trans pseudoscience nor the organizations like Genspect which propagate it?

#2

Is it true that specific people in Times leadership believe that transness is a social contagion and are more inclined to run stories that support the idea of social contagion and to do so without the application of the paper’s own journalistic standards?  

#3

How has The New York Times responded internally to the concerns raised by staff about anti-trans bias and the paper not meeting its own journalistic standards on this topic? 

#4

Our reporting found that staff who go through the existing internal channels to hold The New York Times to its own journalistic standards are not taken seriously. And those who continually push for journalistic integrity on this issue internally are met with negative professional consequences by management. Why is that?

#5

Can The Times provide insight into why Dean Baquet shared Harper’s email with the masthead?

#6

Can The Times provide any insight into why Emily Bazelon’s piece “The Battle Over Gender Therapy” received the Publisher’s Award? How does A.G. Sulzberger respond to our reporting that found the piece elevates disinformation and gives credibility to the organizations and sources spreading that disinformation without qualification nor context?

#7

How does The New York Times respond to reporting from us that the Chairman AG Sulzberger is trying to push the paper to the right in order to appeal to right-wing audiences?

#8

Is it true that members of The Times masthead read and shared anti-trans posts from Bari Weiss’ substack with other masthead members? 

#9

As we reported, the New York Times dedicated 10,000 words of front-page coverage to raising concerns about medical care for trans youth in 2022, yet zero front page stories were dedicated to the nationwide, persistent and coordinated attacks to take away gender affirming healthcare from trans youth in that year. Given what stories the New York Times is choosing to center and elevate, how can the New York Times deny anti-trans bias in its coverage?

#10

Why is The New York Times conflating the contributor letter raising journalistic concerns with the GLAAD letter, by explicitly ignoring the former? Do leaders at The New York Times not believe that there was a difference between them? And was the lack of silence on the contributor letter a tactic to avoid addressing their points? 

#11

Is the New York Times concerned that its reporting—specifically its lack of contextualization of organizations and people who are skeptical, questioning or hostile to gender-affirming care—has been used or cited by anti-trans activists and lawmakers intent on denying health care and other rights to transgender people? Specifically, Texas lawmakers citing Times reporting in court to bolster their argument against families of trans youth, or the Attorney General of Arkansas who cited biased New York Times articles in an amicus brief supporting an Alabama law that criminalizes doctors and parents who provide trans youth with healthcare. What actions is The New York Times considering to possibly address those concerns?

#12

One concern we heard from staff was that trans voices were often left out of key conversations. Our research has found that to be largely accurate. Of the 330,000 words that the New York Times dedicated to attacks on transgender people and our rights, do you have data on how often the voices of transgender people were included in those pieces?

#13

One common theme throughout our investigation was that staffers said masthead leadership—including Carolyn Ryan, Cliff Levy and Pamela Paul—refused to apply the paper’s rigorous editorial standards to unsubstantiated or disputed claims about transgender care, and/or routinely defended stories that misidentified anti-trans activists as experts who spoke on those matters. Can you clarify the standard as it exists now? Can the NYT provide other examples where the political motivations of activists were not disclosed in favor of generic titles of authority?

#14

Did anyone on the masthead, including Pamela Paul, ever raise the factual and ethical concerns to Jesse Signal that were brought up internally by Times Out and other staff members about his review of Helen Joyce’s book?

#15

Did Jesse Singal’s article ever go through the standard fact checking process and, if so, were there ever any issues raised by that fact check?

#16

In the statement you provided, the New York Times defends its reporting on trans issues, saying the paper has published hundreds of articles “specifically on discrimination against transgender people and/or anti-transgender legislation since January 2020.” TransLash’s extensive analysis of New York Times coverage of trans issues found disinformation and anti-trans pseudoscience to be regularly elevated in these articles without correction or context. How does the New York Times respond to these findings and does the New York Times have any standards or guidelines for correcting anti-trans bias in its pages?

Listen to the episode of The Anti-Trans Hate Machine where TransLash investigates The New York Times:

Access the full transcript for Capturing The New York Times here.

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The post The New York Times Responds To TransLash Media appeared first on TransLash Media.

By Adunni

Just the exact way you say it to remind us of outdoing the box, 

An imposing call to order,

reminding us that we might just be doing too much.

After all, we paid dues with our heads buried under the waters 

And dreams dying in thoughts.

Yet, we are advised to TONE IT DOWN!

Denying ourselves of existing at their comfort,

While we are made aliens in our birthplace, homes and even to ourselves.

They say, the more the normality, the better the acceptance.

We have been taught to

HATE who we are, 

BE AFRAID of what we’ve become

and BEAT DOWN at anything that takes our form.

They say you do not have to be out and loud

but you, you… While you stay flourishing in the regretful corner of your heart,

your freedom is to impose restricting opinions on our expression of self.

For what we love, who we are, brings us together and so that same…

the same is the joy to exist differently and free.

How so sweet to consider our safety

but it’s not in our position to apologize

when they are not close to comfort with our lives.

The post “Tone It Down”: Poetry By A Black Trans Femme appeared first on TransLash Media.

About this event: 2020 has been a painful one with a staggering loss of life. Against the backdrop of COVD-19, the reality that the murders of trans women this year, particularly Black trans women, has already shattered last year’s record is a lot to absorb. We will unpack what’s behind this spasm of violence and how to end it.

Jones talks with Beverly Tillery, Executive Director of the Anti-Violence Project, and Mariah Moore, co-founder and co-director of House of Tulip, a community land trust focused on housing solutions for TGNC communities in Louisiana.

ASL interpretation was available during the show.

The post Trans Sex Worker Lana Madison Labeija on Ending Violence Against Trans Women appeared first on TransLash Media.

The post Sizzle Reel appeared first on TransLash Media.

What do the struggles for environmental justice and trans liberation have in common? In this Earth Day episode, Imara examines the shared goals and strategies of these two movements. First, she talks with educator and storyteller Vanessa Raditz about the inherent queerness of nature and the philosophy underlying conservative attacks on trans rights and climate action. Next, she’s joined by organizer and artist, Big Wind Carpenter, who shares what they learned while protesting environmental racism at the Dakota Access Pipeline and on the Wind River reservation. 

The post Environmental Justice Through A Trans Lens appeared first on TransLash Media.

It’s been a rollercoaster of legal battles over anti-trans bans across the U.S., and the results are a mixed—and messy—bag. In this episode, Imara looks at how the Supreme Court is playing along with Christian nationalist schemes to ban gender affirming care for minors in Idaho. On the other side of the country, a win for equal access to athletic facilities in Nassau County, New York spells trouble, and a little bit of hope, for trans protections in blue states. Plus, what Iran’s missile attack on Israel means for President Biden’s road to reelection.

The post Anti-Trans Bans from Idaho to New York appeared first on TransLash Media.