On April 8, the Columbia College Office of LGBTQ Culture and Community presented the 12th Annual "Gender Fusions: Gender Pop."
The eventwhich was also supported by Common Ground and the Columbia College Office of Multicultural Affairsfeatured performances, screenings, a full dinner and a talk/question-and-answer session with trans actress Mya Taylor. Taylor, who recently won the Independent Spirit Award for'best supporting actress for the film Tangerine, also attended a screening of the film and a lunch with Columbia College students earlier in the day.
With greetings from Lex Lawson, the coordinator of The Office of LGBTQ Culture and Community, and Vice-President of Student Success Mark Kelly, the evening got started with a showing of three short films: Meditation on Intimacy, Walk of Shame and the animated Bittersweet. The Youth Empowerment Performance Project ( YEPP ) performed next, mixing dance, spoken word, music and drama into a lively presentation. Columbia College students then took to the stage to perform interpretive dance ( Christopher Titas ), music ( Casbdodmor, Brian Danzy ) and poetry ( Bree Bracey ) as well as stand-up comedy and drag.
After a short break, Taylor came onstage and led a frank talk about her transition from sex work to independent film stardom. Although her life has been transformed by the surprise success of the film, she made it a point to speak about the difficulty of being a trans woman of color in trying to land a job.
Taylor said that, in a three-month span before she made the film, she applied for more than 500 jobs without success due to the discrepancy of who she is and what her birth certificate says she is. Although she has made a major breakthrough with Tangerine ( she has been nominated for six major acting awards and has won four, and is the first trans woman to have an Oscar campaign on her behalf ), she has had major difficulty in landing roles since.
Much of Taylor's talk focused on how "unreal" Hollywood is and how she has approached it with an upfront attitude. She added that a major surprise for her was the idea of being "handled" or changed for public consumption, which emboldened her attitude. She said, "In life don't let anybody change you, tell those mother f*ckers to mind there own business."
Taylor also spoke about receiving support from Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox while expressing her opinions on the trans community. At one point she said, "Trans people say, 'We want acceptance.' Well, speak for yourself. It's not about acceptanceit's about respect."
In closing, Taylor joked about the fairy-tale nature of this chapter of her life ( she now lives in Montana and is set to marry in the near future ) but also about the real reward behind the success of Tangerine: "It felt really really good to touch others lives."
Apart from YEPP, other organizations that supported and had a presence at Gender Pop included Black and Pink, Chef Fresh, Affinity and the Transformative Justice Law Project.