02
2011Invisible
I am not accustomed to the political side of transgender life, so my attendance at today’s Trans March was a new thing for me.
As you can see from the photos, in the course of my participation, I happened to lend a hand to a couple of girls who were carrying a banner, and was photographed doing so.
Not a good idea for someone whose family and friends don’t know about my alter-ego. I had some concern I would end up on the front page of the newspaper and so made a point of checking the headlines and video.
I needn’t have worried.
Nobody seems to care about us, not even those you might expect.
Let me back up a few steps…
Our well-known gay village is located on Church Street, one city block from our main thoroughfare – Yonge Street. Saturday’s Dyke March and Sunday’s big event – the Pride Parade – march down Yonge Street, while our Trans March was relegated to a small stretch of Church Street.
Well, part of our bunch wasn’t having any of this 2nd-class status and defiantly took their march down Yonge Street anyways (having made accommodations with police in advance). Nicely done. That should have improved our visibility…
Remarkably, Toronto’s most progressive newspaper and television channel had nothing on the Trans March… not a word. The newspaper continued to lament our mayor’s decision not to attend the main Pride parade on Sunday; the television report on today’s happenings interviewed people about the upcoming lesbian and gay events and discussed how the Pride movement over the past 31 years has affected their lives. HELLO!!!!
I arrived at the parade site an hour and some before the Trans event, and found the television crew on scene, but actually packing up to leave just before the Trans March was to get underway, having filmed this nice but non-inclusive piece on gays and lesbians.
Bad enough to be ignored on the bigger Saturday and Sunday events, but to rate nary a mention at the very site of and on the very day of our own event (and to have an on-site tv crew turn its back on you) – well that’s a lot harder to swallow.
shantown
Good for you..although I’m not sure how your family and friends can’t know about your “alter ego”. Honestly, I really have troble picturing you in guy mode. You are such a natural girl.
Ya know, the last picture makes me think of your previous post about representing the community. It’s so sad that the public perception of the trans community….you and me….is the girl with the blue hair and thigh boots, or even the girl you’re standing with.While they certainly have the right to their own expression, it is this expression that hurts so many of us in our fight for acceptance. I think, maybe, trans events go ignored by the press and others simply because, with characitures like these, we are just lumped in with the gay scene. Nothing against them at all, but people just don’t understand that there is a totally separate wing of this community…people like you and me that are just girls inside and want to be able to express and live that way….to be themselves.
Remember that “slap in the face”?? Those other girls are slapping folks in the face. Your fabulous look simply says, “Hi, my name is Janie. I’d like to get to know you, and you to know me.”
Again, surely your family and friends must know something. You are just too natural for them not to…..sorry for the dissertation.
cdjanie
I don’t completely agree, I’m afraid. I accept a certain flamboyance is kinda necessary at these events – if only to attract some attention. A group of nondescript people walking down the street is not all that interesting – and I found myself looking for something a little more out there to wear. Sadly, nothing in my wardrobe fit the bill, so I went with my most colorful sundress, and my neon blue shoes. I think the girl I was standing with was beautiful and a wonderful addition to the march. There was another girl – one without nipples – some kind of surgery – that was marching in a corset, but with no top – she was the kind of person who I wish would show a little more class. I also found the burly bald guy in 5″ platform boots covered in multicolored rhinestones and a dress not to be a fair representation of every-day trans people who are trying to make a life in society.
shantown
NP..I’ll give you that. The girl is very pretty, but her outfit definitely draws attention!
I guess different people will want to draw different types of attention, and for different reasons. Different occasions certainly call for different modes of dress. Agreed!
However……I hate that word too….if the agenda of the occasion is to speak up for ‘equal rights”, that battel just might e won more quickly by a group of non-descript, uninteresting people. People might look and think,well, look, they’re not so different from us (which we’ve known all along. That view is less likely to occur if the marchers look like they just came from Mardi Gras.
“There’s a time and place fore everything”…… ya know…..I’m not against the expression… just trying to help the fight here….
shantown
Oops…..that should be “characatures”……my bad!
shantown
Well, dangit…….”caricatures”….maybe?!?!? I’m gonna get this right…..(how embarassing) lol
Stacey Collins
Janie, You dont have anything flamboyant in your wardrobe? I would have worn my pink gown and white gloves and done the “Rose Parade” wave! I’m glad to see you got involved and you’re writing continues to help us all. Perhaps an editorial contribution to the paper is in order. And you looked great holding the banner.
cdjanie
Stacey, you would have looked beautiful in that outfit and brought class and color to our event! No, I don’t have anything classy AND flamboyant, like you; I do have latex outfits and such, but I didn’t want to look like a tramp.
cdjanie
Shannon, I accept your point of view; maybe you’re right. But, for me the issue is, where you say, “People might look and think,well, look, they’re not so different from us” – that people might not look at all.
klyde
That’s a shame. But you look fabulous.
Miz Know-It-All
Darling? Like so many others, you want to have your cake and to eat it too I see…
No? well aren’t you the one out there with all the rest marching so that the world accepts you as women?.. And disappointed that you didn’t get air time to say it?But then aren’t you also out there saying woe unto those that actually do accept you as women when you are dying to rip off the wig and show them what a fool they were! See! See! fooled ya! I’m really a man!
So tell me? Is it any wonder why folks treat all who are “gender variant” as a joke and why the women for whom this is not a game want to distance themselves when there is a yearly reminder that these people are not what they seem to be? No Sweetie, I’m afraid you need to accept that the hairy bearded men in silly clothes making a mockery of women in general is the face of trans as long as it is being attached to them!
cdjanie
All I want is to be treated with respect rather than contempt, equality rather than discrimination, regardless of my gender expression. And that goes as much inside the TG community as outside. In my view, being both genders is as valid a condition as being a single gender – be it one’s birth/physical/CIS gender or the opposite. My presenting as a woman is not a costume, not a mockery of women, not a sexual fetish. It is no game for me either, and the consequences of my lifestyle are very real indeed.