UIC welcomed the LGBT community, students, allies and other guests to the Transgender Oral History Project reception Oct. 12 at the Behavioral Sciences Building.
The reception featured a life-size transgender history timeline; streamed interactive personal interviews; a poster wall of signatures and handwritten experiences; and pamphlets about the project and the transgender community.
Founder Andre Perez said he started the organization not only out of a personal pursuit to connect the transgender community with communities outside the LGBT community but to also reconnect and develop a better understanding about the transgender community among the LGBT community. Perez believed that the reception was an idea kick-off to future events that will educate and showcase the transgender community.
"How do we build a sense of community?," Perez asked. "How do we build a sense of shared history? Those were the questions that drove me. I wanted to make sure to create something that a lot of different people could contribute to, so that it reflected the diversity of the transgender community."
According to the website, the Transgender Oral History Project's mission is to showcase an array of stories from within the transgender and gender variant community. The organization plans to promote such stories through teaching and carrying out media production projects. For more information about the Transgender Oral History Project and for future events, visit transoralhistory.com .