The 20th anniversary of the Trans March on Friday brought hundreds to the Women’s Building and Dolores Park for a day that started with a brunch and ended with an evening march.
A long line formed early on at the screen-printing stall, where posters and shirts adorned with a design that read “Queer resistance” were available. Other stalls advertised gender-affirming care, haircuts and painting supplies. The San Francisco Public Library Booth gave out free books and library pins.
Under a sunny sky, visitors spread picnic blankets and set up tents for shade, listening to performers on stage dancing, singing and giving speeches. The crowd clearly approved of a folksy song about not talking to the police and a speech about Banko Brown, a Black trans man who was killed last spring by a Walgreens security guard.
Another speech encouraged everyone to join the boycott of S.F. Pride called for by pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish groups, and promoted an alternative “march for Palestinian liberation” held at 1 p.m. on Sunday starting at Church and Market streets.
Toting flags and signs, attendees then marched down Dolores Street and Market Street, ending the march at the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets with a rally.
Mission Local spoke to several attendees of Friday’s festivities and asked: What’s been bringing you joy?
Teddy Lance: “It’s actually my tits. Although I hate Jeff Bezos and Amazon, these 30-dollar tits have been amazingly life-giving. [Editor’s note: The reference is to breast prosthetics from Amazon.]
Certainly for me, as a trans-femme person, your reaction of, ‘Oh my god, that’s not a real tit’ is so good for me. As someone is considering hormones or not and considering progesterone or implants or not, this has been a lovely way in for me.
More generally for me, Urbody underwear. This is now an ad for Urbody underwear. They have amazing gender-affirming underwear that has made me feel like I can be sexy with minimal clothing, which has never happened before.”
Jessica Marchesi: “This necklace actually is something that has brought me a lot of joy recently. I’m still fairly new to the transitioning, and there’s sort of a cliche about butterflies as transition symbols, and butterflies always seem a little too much to me. But I love dragonflies. Dragonflies are kind of like punk-rock butterflies. So I got this necklace recently, and it brings me a lot of joy, because I look at it and I see my changes.”
Christina Mosham: “My son, who happens to be trans, would be the person that brings me joy. And then, for the object, it would be my stuffed animal, which is a pumpkin bear. The pumpkin bear I can hold, and it helps me with my anxiety, and my son is just amazing, and I love him so much.”
Aetherial Isvari: “I love connecting with trees, but there’s one specific tree in Buena Vista Park that I recognize as a soul. And so, I go out of my way to go spend time with it. Sometimes I give it kisses or I just hold it for a while, and I can feel its energy, and I just love that tree like a friend. And I have friends on the other side of the Bay that are also trees. And I go and visit them from time to time and make time for that. “But yeah, connecting with nature, connecting with trees is really important.”
Lulu Schwartz: “You ask me what brings me joy? Well, being trans brings me joy. But one object: The red-and-black flag of anarchist communism, which I think is the only true source of political hope for all of us who are truly oppressed. Anarchist because we take control of our bodies. Communism, because we will have a new form of communism that will allow all humans to come together.”
Lei Asato: “I live here in the city with my beautiful girlfriend and our three cats in the Mission. Recently, it’s been family and friends that have brought me joy. It’s been a lot of transitions in my life it’s been really nice to have a network to rely on and people to really count on these days, sources of safety.”
Kayla Argain: “What brings me joy is making other people smile, and I get to do that often by finding community. For me, as a trans woman in Fresno, California, I have found a community playing the game Pokemon Go. There are over 100 people that gather for our events, and they all support and care and make sure that I feel safe and included. I get to go and do a lot of walking, and it just makes me really happy to be around people that accept me for my authentic self and who I am.”
Isca Dawnshadow: “I have my girlfriend with me. So she brought me to my first Pride; it’s been really good. You gotta give a better answer. You can’t just cheat.”
Medb Gill: “I can’t just say you?”
Dawnshadow: “You can’t just cheat. Nope.”
Gill: “Today was the march itself. But in general, the thing that’s been bringing a lot of joy for me lately is my guinea pigs at home, Marshmallow and Caramel. They’re so cute.”
Jonah Siegel-Warren: “What’s bringing me joy these days is experimenting with cyanotype art. I’m doing tests with different sources of light other than the sun.”
Oakley Manning: “My fiancé has been bringing me joy.”
Sklyer Boswell: “Yes, I love my fiancé so much, and I’m so happy to be here.”
Lukey Zahn: “My lover Aina; she’s been bringing me joy.”
Emmet Bush: “What’s been bringing me joy is myself. I used to be very depressed for 15 years of my life, and being trans helped me love myself. And I feel like the greatest source of joy is from within myself. And it helps me recognize the joy in others.”
What brought me the most joy that weekend was the Trans & Queer March for Palestine. I felt like I was in the right place and my spirits were lifted. I felt honored to be with other people who understand how connected we are to Palestine, and to trans and queer Palestinians in the U.S., looking around at the depoliticized pride celebrations while their loved ones are being murdered. The kind of pride ‘celebrations’ I want to be part of hold those parts too, even if that sounds grim, because they honor our interconnectedness, which is the whole point.
Thank you for such a beautiful article! Trans joy is hard to come by these days, but this article shows how resilient and supportive the transgender community is.