ITL Fellow in the News!

"Positive OUTLook" with Sara Luby
OUTtvPittsburgh/www.outonline.com
September 22nd, 2011



Sara stepped in to host Positive OUTLook this week as Nayck Feliz was out of town. Nayck's show is tagged: Health and Wellness in the LGBT Community in Pittsburgh and Beyond.

Sara works at the Positive Health Clinic at Allegheny General Hospital. We talked about ITL, my current projects, the Pittsburgh queer community 5-year plan, how great the acronym QUILTBAG is, and the recent rally in response to anti-gay violence in Boomfield. Great show! Thanks Sara & Nayck!

Thanks to the show's sponsors: Pitt Men's Study and Pittsburgh's OUT!

"Helping Transgender People Find a Voice" by Erika Beras
Essential Public Radio
September 21st, 2011

This radio piece is about voice coaches for transgender women. I make an appearance around 4:40 to talk about transgender voices. Erika and I had a great chat during the interview and we talked about Purchase College, where we both went to school.

Link: http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/story/2011-09-21/helping-transgendered-people-find-voice-7237

"Transgender Community Tries to Enlighten" by Tony Norman
Post-Gazette.com
September 16th, 2011

Tony Norman met Mad and I for dinner to talk through this piece about the ITL and the Stories on the Square event. We ended up talking even more about trans etiquette, trans representations and the trans community. Really a great opportunity to have an in depth conversation with Tony, who was so refreshingly up front about not knowing this or that about trans people. I've gotten a lot of good feedback about this article and I appreciate Tony for putting himself out there and spreading some good press about trans folks, and thanks to Mad for setting this up!

Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11259/1175033-153-0.stm

A thousand times - Thank You!

Last Friday's Stories on the Square event raised over $3100! What an amazing feat of teamwork and enthusiasm. Thanks to the Square Cafe for being exemplary hosts. Thanks to all of the performers--Madeleine Hershey, Vanessa German, Brian Broome, Phat Man Dee, and Christina Springer. And thanks to Wendy Bell for hosting. Thanks to everyone who donated raffle items, to everyone who attended and to everyone who got the word out. We had every seat filled, some tears were shed, lots of hugs, lots of laughs, and many pictures were taken. Speaking of which, post your pictures from the event and share them with ITL on Facebook!

Yesterday, Mad and Bobby and I were talking about how tough it is to track the kind of progress we are making, because so much of it is in face-to-face conversations, genuine enthusiasm, little shared moments, and personal triumphs. How do you put that on a grant application? That's not the point. We all know how we feel when we are working together on something bigger than all of us. But certainly, being able to say we raised this much and had that many attendees at such-and-such event will help us prove our worth when it comes to major fundraising efforts.

Thinking ahead (only 2 months!) to my final presentation. Hope you all are there and thanks again, really.

With love,
Ray

Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice

Registration now open for October conference

Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice

Registration is open for Three Rivers Community Foundation’s exciting social change conference, Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice. This three-day conference will address several key issues, including Disability rights, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, LGBT rights, Peace and Human rights, Racial Justice, and Women, Youth, and Families.

There will be skill building workshops, panel discussions, community dialogues on core issues, an art show, a film festival, round table discussions, and inspiring speakers, including our key-note speaker, Winona LaDuke.

Building Change isn’t only a convergence of ideas and core issues. It’s also a convergence of grass roots organizers, activists, and participants from 10 Southwestern PA counties, including: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Green, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland.

Building Change will run from October 13-15 at the Heinz History Center (1212 Smallman St, Strip District).

Ticket Prices:

Daily Tickets (Thurs-Sat): Sliding scale of $5-$10

Three-Day Convergence Pass (does not include nights): Sliding scale of $20 to $25

Thursday Evening Reception with Winona LaDuke: $25

Thursday and Friday Evening General Admission: $10

Film Festival Screening: Suggested donation of $5

All-Access Pass: $80

To learn more about the event mission and schedule, and how you can get involved visit:  www.buildingchangewpa.org

Pittsburgh's QUILTBAG Community 5 year Plan Meeting PART II

Part II of Pittsburgh's QUILTBAG Community 5-year Plan Meeting

Summary of Findings

In regards to the question posed to participants: What is the Pittsburgh-area QUILTBAG community to you? Participants defined our community is a subculture, it is fractured, it is welcoming, it is different groups coming together, it is united by challenges and oppression, it is loosely connected, it is transient, it is Pride, it is our organizations & their programming, it is family/friends, it lacks a geographic center. There was hesitance to even say “community” as there are many communities and they don’t always come together.  Generally, participants expressed dismay and frustration about the extent of divisions within the QUILTBAG community. Divisions that came up: generational, racial, religious, queer men vs. queer women, ally vs. LGBTQ, political, regional, HIV status, economic.

In regards to where we want to see our community in 5 years, participants responded overwhelmingly with more. We want more resources (health, legal, emergency, housing) for youth, older adults, transpeople, sex workers, prison populations, etc. We want those resources to be accessible and up-to-date. We want more collaboration with allies, with a variety of organizations. We want more communication and more support for each other’s events and causes. More organizing around issues that affect some of us so they affect all of us—broadening what it means to be a QUILTBAG issue. For example, why isn’t Jordan Miles a queer issue? Why isn’t Marcellus Shale a queer issue? We want more discussion of, working on and unlearning racism within the community, and we want white people to take the lead more often on making that happen. We want events that are not in bars, substance-free, and welcoming to many different kinds of people within our community. We want Pittsburgh to become a queer destination, especially for young people and artists. We want to see the same enthusiasm about QUILTBAG issues year round and not just during Pride. We want more visibility and more people coming out. We want our allies to be educated. We want service providers, health care providers, and emergency responders to understand our issues. We want a space (preferably a building) that is self-sustaining and stands as a hub for the QUILTBAG community and provides event space, health care, a place to sleep, and youth services. Overall, intersectionality is huge and taking care of our own is huge. We can enact power to create change by unifying and bridging the gaps that divide us.

The Issues Gallery Crawl activity allowed participants to move around and record ideas about various issues apparent in our community. For each issue, there were two columns with something like the following: What is already happening? What needs to happen? That way, we have a space to focus on assets/the current state of things as well as generate ideas for change.

What a Pittsburgh-area QUILTBAG Community 5-Year Plan might look like

• Mission statement (i.e. what the 5-year plan is what it stands for)
• Vision (i.e. our ultimate goal for our community/communities)
• Background and history (i.e. previous plans, progress made, where we go from here)
• Structure of the plan (i.e. continuations committee, how to share the information)
• Themes of change (i.e. intersectionality, collective organizing, expansion of resources)
• Specific goals, steps to get there and timelines to measure success

[All information would be informed by ideas generated by this and future 5-year plan meetings]

Pittsburgh's QUILTBAG Community 5 year Plan Meeting PART I

QUILTBAG: queer/questioning, unsure/undecided/unisex, intersex, lesbian, transgender/transsexual, bisexual, asexual/ally, gay/genderqueer

Event Background and Planning

So where did the idea to hold a 5-year-plan meeting come from anyway? The Initiative for Transgender Leadership was created to enable leadership and professional development for transgender youth in Pittsburgh.One of the goals of the fellowship is to create positive change in the community.

Furthermore, this October 13-15^th the Three Rivers Community Foundation will put on the first-ever Building Change: A Convergence on Social Justice conference [Registration is now open!], which will bring together community members to begin building a regional, cross-issue movement. One of the goals of the conference is to generate a community-generated Action Plan to build social justice movements in the region.

Additionally, on June 22^nd, representatives from organizations that serve the QUILTBAG community were invited to attend a workshop on “Creating a Successful Internship Program” with the Regional Internship Center (a program of Coro Pittsburgh). I led a discussion following the workshop on community assets and challenges, and how to create a better community through the use of successful internship programs. This conversation sparked interest for more group discussion on community issues.

Why not get started on creating an action plan for the QUILTBAG community? That way, our community can have something more complete to bring to the table at the conference. Generating these discussions also has a positive impact within the community: building coalitions, bringing community members into the same space to share ideas, creating a more comprehensive image of the community, etc.

More than 130 people were invited to the meeting to begin creating a 5 year plan for the QUILTBAG community. Invitees were encouraged to fill out a registration form that would give them an opportunity to RSVP as well as contribute ideas, even if they could not attend. Responses to “Top 3 Community Challenges” were added to a list that was available for attendees to draw ideas from.

Fifty-seven people attended the meeting at United Cerebral Palsy. Originally the meeting was to be held at the GLCC, but because of difficulties with the handicapped accessibility, it was decided to change the location.

Structure of the Meeting

            There was time for a mixer between 6:30 and 7pm and attendees could talk, schmooze, peruse fliers and resources, sign in, and eat snacks. The meeting itself ran from 7-9pm. Eight tables were set up with eight chairs for each. Markers and note-taking paper were provided.

            Etta C., Lizzie A. and I co-facilitated. Jessica M. provided ASL interpretation. Anne L. provided vegan/gluten-free/soy-free desserts. The meeting begun with introductions, a quick background, and setting the meeting ground rules (for example: speak from your own experience, notice who is talking and who isn’t). Attendees were asked to introduce themselves to the rest of their own tables to cut down on go-around time. Two shorter brainstorming activities generated ideas about what the QUILTBAG community is to us and where would we like it to be in 5 years. Participants were encouraged to think big. The longer activity asked participants to walk around and write down ideas on large paper based on central themes (generated by the registration forms). This was called a “Gallery Crawl”. After each activity, participants reported back to the group. At the end, we evaluated the meeting.

What happens when queers speak out against violence

On Wednesday, August 24th I got 5 text messages within 2 minutes about a friend of mine who had been held at gunpoint for walking hand-in-hand with her girlfriend in Bloomfield. Would I come to a rally in front of the Pleasure Bar that night and show some solidarity with my queer brothers and sisters? Of course. In the meanwhile I wept in my cube thinking about the futility of community organizing while people I care about are getting guns shoved in their faces for being queer.

I got word on the way to the rally that the cops had told people to move and everyone was moving to Friendship Park. I showed up around 7:30, half an hour after the official start. Some people had gone to the park already when I arrived, some remained. I wanted to stay in front of the bar too. In front of the Pleasure Bar is where another community member was hit in the face by a homophobe a year ago. We had a huge rally when that happened. Over a hundred of us probably stood on the sidewalk in front of the bar and got a lot of attention. Some media crews showed up, people spoke and cheered and we took up SPACE. It was amazing. Cops showed up mostly to keep us safe and stayed out of our way.

This time around it was clear things were different. When everyone got to the park, all the energy left us. It was downright boring. We weren't doing anything! We could have all just been hanging out and no one passing by would know that we were angry about something very specific that happened just over there, if only we could stand there and protest in peace like it is our right to do so.

Word got around that the cops said we couldn't block the sidewalk in front of Pleasure Bar but we could rally in the park or march, as long as we kept moving. So people started to move again. We wanted to take the streets! Show that anti-gay violence is not to be tolerated in our community! We wanted people to see us and wonder what happened and join us. But we got less than 2 blocks when cops started showing up. By the time I got in front of Nico's the cops already had one of us in cuffs held against a car! What did they do? I had no idea. I started filming. There was a round of "Let them go!" but now that they had one of us they weren't gonna back down. What did the cops do next? Called in more backup - a few scary K9 teams and a paddy wagon. Everyone froze. Why were they arresting people? Someone was arrested for asking. Scared and defeated, we made our way back to the park. Some kid yelled "fuck you!" to a cop. Yeah, like that helps AT ALL.

Once back at the park, anger and tension hit a peak. People shared information, hugged, felt like crying, uploaded pictures of the arrests, watched more and more police vehicles take over the church parking lot, watched our toes to make sure we stayed off the sidewalks and heaven forbid incur more wrath from the police. Where were the police the other night when my friend had a gun pulled on her?

I stood dazed and watched it all. The sun was setting. Channel 4 finally showed up and took some interviews. By that time, half the group had left. I was introduced to a man who was beaten so badly in Wilkinsburg a couple of weeks ago that his jaw was still broken. Why didn't we show up for him? I heard story after story about cops being unhelpful or downright abusive to queers for reporting incidents.

I know police reports could have been filed sooner. Yeah, we could write up a report for the Citizens Review Board or whatever. Yeah, we could wait 5 years for some inadequate cultural competency trainings for the city police. But we were angry NOW. We had something to say NOW. We were fearless together and we wanted to make the homophobes so scared by our love for each other that they would never show their faces again in Bloomfield or anywhere in the city that we love. We wanted to be SEEN. Not as "violent protesters", not as a rag-tag bunch of weirdos, but as a group of people who may not all know each other but could damn well show up (with posters, too!) at short notice to say "Pick on one of us and you pick on all of us!" (to steal a phrase from Ocean's sign :)

We clearly have the energy and the passion. Let's clarify our message, get it organized and keep showing up -- cops or no!

[Afterword: It recently came to my attention that the first time the cops heard about the rally was when a neighbor called the cops in earnest--not wanting this sort of thing to happen--and the cop said he couldn't do anything about us being there cause that is allowed. No one called the cops to give them a heads up about the rally which is what happened at the last one and gave us some credibility. We need to spread to the word about this kind of info. What are our rights when it comes to police interaction? How do we interact with the media to get the best possible representation? Workshops anyone? --R.S. 9/9]

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More coverage of this event, some clearly better than others:

Missing the Point: Protest arrests highlight disconnect between cops, LGBT community by Lauren Daley
Bloomfield Queer Rally: LGBT or was it an anarchist event? by Thomas C. Waters
Bloomfield Queer Rally: at the hearings by Thomas C. Waters
Only on 4: Gay Rights Demonstrators Taken Into Custody After Protest by "Crap Here, Crap Now" WTAE
Man arrested in gay rally on probation for G-20 by Pittsburgh "I Missed the Point" Tribune-Review
Protesters arrested at Bloomfield anti-homophobia rally by Pittsburgh "What's a rally?" Post-Gazette
YouTube: Arrests in Bloomfield at Anti-Violence Rally

Stories on the Square: Coming Out From Under/Stories of Emergence

Do you like passionate, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants story-telling? Come to STORIES ON THE SQUARE to witness great story-tellers doing what they do best.

STORIES ON THE SQUARE happens at the Square Cafe in Regent Square on Fri. Sept. 16th. Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm. Tickets are $45 and benefit the Initiative for Transgender Leadership

Hosted by Wendy Bell of WTAE. Featuring Brian Broome, Phat Man Dee, Vanessa German, Christina Springer, and more!

Check out the Facebook event page here and invite your friends!

Note: Donations made through PayPal will not result in ticket reservations.  To purchase tickets stop in Square Cafe during business hours or email TransLeadership@gmail.com.

Transgender 201 Training 8/4/11

At the beginning of August, Bobby and I had the opportunity to share our knowledge of trans issues with my co-workers: staff at Coro Pittsburgh as well as Public Allies and someone from the Allegheny County Dept. of Human Services.

We presented a PowerPoint, which was a combination of many efforts. In some ways the presentation was similar top the one Mad and I did in March for the Presbyterian Task Force on Ministry with Sexual Minorities. We encouraged participants to take a close look at all of our gender assumptions, how really--no (or very few) people we know actually fit the stereotype of what a man is or what a woman is. We went through the basics: binary vs. continuum, pulling apart gender & sex, pulling apart sexuality & gender identity. We did our best to define who falls under the trans umbrella and who doesn't (this isn't always so clear). We talked about issues that trans people face, and showed profiles of trans celebrities (mostly academic, artistic and/or politically active).

One of my favorite slides is for when we talk about the positives of the trans community--our assets. I can get bummed out talking too much about all the hardships trans folks face, even though sharing that info is very important. I like to show what's so great about us too.

The main activity at the end was breaking into groups to begin to figure out how to create structures in the workplace (policy, procedure, culture, etc.) that support trans inclusion. For example, the Coro offices are located in a large building with many other renters. How do we ensure the bathrooms that we share are safe places for trans folks? What resources do we need to successfully address the need for safe bathrooms? What roadblocks do we foresee and how are we going to work through them?

Overall, I was happy with how the presentation turned out. I'm excited to do more of these (any takers?) especially because of the conversations that get started around trans issues and 'cause we get the chance to lend value to our own experiences as worthy information to share.

Landmark Education Part II

Continued from the previous blog post: Landmark Education Part I

So, I decided to commit my 25th birthday weekend to something totally different: the Landmark forum. Full days on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then back for a re-cap on Tuesday evening. In my view, it's like a weekend crash-course in getting-to-know-yourself and generating-a-new-life-philosophy. Putting things into perspective, getting a grip on patterns one keeps doing over and over again. I also described it to some people like an extended poetry reading or consciousness-raising session. Folks shared incredibly powerful stories and we were all witnesses to each others' transformations large and small.

I was thinking a lot about my fears of coming out, about integrity & accountability, about relationships and all that stuff that hangs over my head and never gets said. At every break you are given "homework" like, think about this or that decision you made when you were 5 or 14 or 24 that shaped what you thought you were capable of from then on. Or, call up someone in your life and have a totally unreasonable conversation with them, for example, have that conversation you know in your heart to be impossible and do it with urgency and courage and love.

It's very freeing, pinpointing the moment I decided for myself that I was going to make myself be "the responsible one" from then on because I couldn't count on anybody else, even though I didn't want to be responsible and raged against it. One snippet I like that came up a lot that weekend "what we resist, persists". Like we all know a parent's behavior we absolutely do not want to repeat but--there it is--and it seems even more prominent the more we try to fight it. So just making the decision to leave decisions we make about ourselves and other people (I'm too this, or not that enough) in the past where they belong, because otherwise, those decisions and resentments shape how we see everything in the future and squeeze out any possibility that we can do anything new.

I have more to say about this that I can't remember now. I did have some incredible things come out of that weekend. Met some really amazing people. Felt like I was in a really safe space. Laughed, cried, had some conversations with people I never thought were going to be possible, really got to the bottom of a distressing family mystery, and I think, became a much better listener.

I'm currently attending the Landmark 10-week seminar series "Causing the Miraculous" 'cause, why not? On a somewhat-related note, I just finished reading, again, The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies, a Canadian playwright with a magnificent beard. These three books are about how tiny decisions create entire lives of consequences, how the minor characters make all the difference, and how the world of the miraculous really isn't that far away. Plus it's full of magicians, circus freaks and brilliant weirdos.

Landmark Education Part I

Back when I first started this fellowship, Mad invited me to do the Landmark Forum, an intensive weekend of philosophical education and self-work. All three ITL co-creators did some variation of the program and they all seem to speak the same language during planning meetings. I check out the website once and promptly forgot about it.
Mad brought it up a few more times. I was wishy-washy. It seemed creepy and expensive and not-for-me. It seemed vaguely religious, and too good to be true. Mad invited me a few more times and then in May she told me that there was going to be an introduction meeting in Pittsburgh led by someone she really admired. I decided to go with and check it out, partly so Mad would quit asking me. I appreciate that she warned me, "Now, people here are going to seem a bit more happy and shiny than the regular session" so I knew to take it with a grain of salt. The marketing of it is pushy and annoyed me. I didn't like how everyone anticipated every negative thought I was having. But Mad shared some thoughts with me personally that made it more about a gift she was offering me to offer to myself. I was also struck by some observations she had of me that seemed really "confronting" and really showed me that she was paying close attention.
Furthermore, the speaker was really good. He was excellent and eventually was like, "Oh, I'm sure I could tell you a bunch of reasons to do this, but why not just do it 'cause what the hell?" I liked this. I decided to do it cause "what the hell" and because I felt like I needed something big and totally different in my life to shake me up. Also, it seemed uncanny that the next Pittsburgh Forum was over my birthday weekend.
I was told that the Landmark Forum starts when you register, however, I did do my immediate ambivalent ramble: "Oh no! Why did I just sign up for this thing on my birthday weekend? Everyone is going to think I am a big weirdo and voluntarily brainwashing myself...I'm going to start talking in annoying jargon and blah, blah, blah..." But then really started to see how it was true for me: it did start once I registered. June was an awful month and I kept thinking how I really needed a new perspective on things, needed something to shake me up. My b-day weekend came along soon enough and I really worked hard to get as many things out of the way and taken care of before the weekend really began. Knowing I was about to do this motivated me in a way I really needed. I wasn't looking forward to 13-hour days in an overly-air-conditioned room in Greentree...but I was optimistic.