The annual Trans 100 event recognized individuals from across the country March 29 at The Mayne Stage in Chicago. The standing-room-only audience was comprised of allies and an empowered transgender, gender non-conforming and genderqueer community.
The evening's co-hosts were community ambassador and trans evangelist Precious Davis and advocate Myles Brady. They were still soaring from both their recent engagement and a visit to a White House Briefing for Black LGBT Emerging Leaders.
"This evening, we will connect, we will laugh, we might cry—but we will build community," Davis said.
It was a community in front of which accomplished journalist and GLAAD Senior Media Strategist of National News Tiq Milan was unafraid to show vulnerability as he recounted the love and support he received from his late mother Mary.
"I went to my mother in hospice and, by this time, she was barely speaking," Milan said. "My sister was there and my sister referred to me as 'she.' My mother on her deathbed whispered 'he.' That was one of the last words my mother ever spoke."
Milan had to break away from his speech in order to regain his composure. He was encouraged to continue by almost every member of the audience.
"I put my head on [my mother's] shoulder and my hand in hers and when I woke up, my champion was dead," he said. "I promised my mother that I was going to cement her legacy as I built mine. I would not be the man that I am if it wasn't for my mother. I am the embodiment of her kindness and her brilliance and her will and her determination. My mother taught me what unconditional love is—she taught me that [it's] persistent and consistent, that it's accountable and expects accountability."
"Having a national platform is a start but let's hold off on giving out gold stars," Milan urged after noting that even his own achievements and the global presence of trans celebrities had not saved the lives of people like Blake Brockington, Leelah Alcorn, Papi Edwards, Lamia Beard, Ty Underwood, Taja De Jesus and Yazmin Vash Payne. "Acceptance is much more than visibility. Acceptance is safety, leadership development and giving space for self-determination. Acceptance is the reexamination of the systems and structures that have killed us, disenfranchised us, marginalized us and told us that we didn't matter for so long. We have to be each other's champions the way my mother was my champion. We have to be more concerned about building maps for the future instead of monuments to ourselves."
He brought the audience to their feet.
Performers at the event were Tona Brown on violin, musician Laura Jane Grace and poet Rocco Katastrophe Kayiatos.
"All of the work that we do has meaning," Davis said. "We need to get rid of the shade in the trans community, celebrate each other because each and every one of us has a place at the table."
Award-winning director, writer and producer Lana Wachowski invited the audience to take a singular place in front of her heart, humor and humility. She admitted that she doesn't usually take part in speaking engagements but she wanted the opportunity to speak directly to her community. "There were things I wanted to say that I would never say to a broader non-trans audience," she stated.
Before that, Wachowski took a moment to discuss the reactions her hair receives during her world-wide travels. "I'm used to people staring, taking pictures, pointing but it was wild to be followed by circles of people wanting to touch it, wanting me to hold their babies, taking pictures of me like I was an exotic safari animal or a Kardashian."
Wachowski added that she was suspicious of everything connected to the word "normal."
"It is to my thinking a politically correct euphemism for obedience and conformity," she said. "Our species is unique for our capacity to be born into a set of environmental, biological or social circumstances and limitations and through the often astonishing power of our imaginations we are able to transcend them."
"The fact is that it can be fucking hard to be trans in this world," Wachowski noted. "This world is a violent place for people like us. Every day it attacks, rejects, demeans, humiliates, scorns and all too often murders us for no other reason that we are different. LGBTQ youth require extreme measures of protection because the violence being done to them is itself extreme. In Leelah [Alcorn's] case the word 'suicide' for me is inadequate and inappropriate. For me her act was symbolic that had more in common with the monk burning themselves in protest."
"I would guess almost everyone in the world has at some point dreamed of becoming an artist, an astronaut, a pop star, footballer, doctor, fill in the blank," she asserted. "I would also guess that most people in the world know what it's like to have that dream crushed or beaten out of them. The difference between us in this room and those other dreamers—first, our dream to be seen and accepted as trans people can often cost us our lives and, second, none of us in here has ever given up on that dream."
List readers Cherno Biko, T.J. Jourian, Mia Tu Mutch, Andrea Perez, Claire Swinford, Vanessa Victoria and Jaan Williams read the list of 2015 Trans 100 honorees throughout the evening. As with their 200 predecessors from 2013 and 2014, the names came from across the United States and covered a vast spectrum of age, race, professions and advocacy.
They included filmmaker Sam Feder, social worker Avi Bowie, radio host Katrina Goodlett, activist Monica James-Lauren, advocate and activist Samantha Jo-Dato, educator Mickey Ray Mahoney, HIV Program Coordinator Kristen Parker-Lowell, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition Chair Maxwell Ng, advocate Reyna Ortiz, model and Gender Proud founder Geena Rocero, attorney and mentor Jayden HC Sampson, athlete and activist Ms. Dr. Joseph L. Simonis, activist and educator Crispin Torres, youth advocates Bonn Wade and Myles Brady, activist Monica James, and artists Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and Rashida Davison.
For a complete list, visit thetrans100.com .
NOTE: Windy City Times reporter Gretchen Rachel Hammond, who wrote this story, was also announced as among the Trans 100 for 2015.
From a press release:
Lambda Legal Congratulates Crispin Torres For Being Named To The Trans 100
"Inclusion on such an esteemed and respected list reflects Crispin's resolute dedication to being a resource for the transgender community."
(New York, NY — March 31, 2015) Lambda Legal is proud to announce today that Crispin Torres, Community Educator in Lambda Legal's Midwestern Regional Office, has been named to the Trans 100. The Trans 100 is an annual list that recognizes prominent members of the transgender community across the country.
"Crispin has been a key part on our community education team, and we are delighted that he has been named to the Trans 100," said Leslie Gabel-Brett, Director of Lambda Legal's Education and Public Affairs department. "Inclusion on such an esteemed and respected list reflects Crispin's resolute dedication to being a resource for the transgender community."
Crispin, who has been with Lambda Legal since 2012, has been a principal voice in the organization's efforts within the transgender community. Crispin has worked on local and statewide efforts in transgender equality, been instrumental in the 2014 Transgender Day of Remembrance, in Chicago, and was instrumental in shifting its focus from one of survival to one of resilience.
"I am honored to be named on this list with other exceptional trans leaders" said Torres. "It is humbling to have my work recognized at the national level, and this accomplishment motivates me to continue to push harder to promote civil rights for all transgender people."
The Trans 100 list is released each year on the International Trans Day of Visibility, which occurs on March 31st of every year. The Trans 100 is intended to highlight individuals doing active work for and in the trans community and places special consideration on those working in the areas of ostracism elimination, stigma reduction, poverty reduction, furthering the social and economic development of the trans community, and building infrastructure within the trans community.
