Last year's Gender (Free) For All march. Photo by Heather Smith
Gender (Free) For All recently changed its name to TransEnough, and it looks like the group may have many transitions on its plate, even in the midst of a summer full of Pride. This year’s gathering, which already splintered off from June’s Pride celebrations last year, has not been widely publicized and will not include a march at all.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t go. At tomorrow’s rally in Unthank Park elected officials will assure us of their support and hopefully, give us examples of what they’ve accomplished and Amy Ruiz, LGBTQ Liaison from the Office of the Mayor, will read a proclamation establishing August 1-7 as Trans Week of Celebration. The lineup also includes speakers from Q Patrol, much loved Katie Carter and Amber Rollins from In Other Words, and comedy from Belinda Carroll.
Now, you all know how much I love this city. It’s a great play to live and be gay and I have no desire to play little brother to Seattle, San Francisco, or anywhere else. And we have a thriving trans community. But what we seem to lack is a little bit of organization and cohesion at times.
Both the Trans and Dyke Marches I experienced at SF Pride this year exceeded even my uber-queer attendance expectations. I’d be happy with a few less. But Portland’s Dyke March this year was tiny, and I expect tomorrow may not even draw as many as the Trans Family Picnic did, even as that was supposed to be a low key, unpublicized event.
We love our independence. And the separation of the Dyke and Trans marches, rallies, what have you, may be a good idea. The Dyke March is still a march but had no pre-funk entertainment or rallying beyond running into all your exes, and the Trans Rally this year has some amazing gathering but no march. Neither had enough publicity.
So next year, folks, can we make a celebration (or 2) that is truly a political and entertaining summer day in the park the makes ALL of Portland wake up and take notice of Portland’s amazing dyke, trans, queer, genderqueer, rad-as-f*** community? I’m happy to be a point person for that.
Full rally lineup and info below:
Gender Madlibs will be returning this year!
We’ll do three rounds of ten readers in between the following speakers:
Q Patrol
Amy Ruiz – LGBTQ Liaison from the Office of the Mayor
Stacy Brewster – Office of Commissioner Dan Saltzman, City of Portland
Representative from the Office of Jeff Cogen, Multnomah County Chair
Police Liason Representative from Portland Police Bureau, City of Portland
Katie Carter and Amber Rowlins – In Other Words
Jenn Burleton – Transactive
Carla Remey (Outloud) & Rebecca Nay (Gender Blenders) – KBOO Radio
Ben Brown – Portland Leather Pride
Followed by Entertainment From
Poeina Suddarth
Belinda Carroll
Cat Dynes
Plus More!
Gender (Free) for All Rally
4:00 -7:00 pm
Unthank Park – N Shaver St & N Kerby
Pre-Rally Schedule for Volunteers & Performers
2:15pm: Load-in Volunteers, Sound Operators, Videographer Call Time
2:30-3:15pm: LOAD-IN
3:15-3:50pm: Performer Call Time & Sound Check
3:45pm: Speakers Call Time
4:00-7:00pm: Rally!
Correction: The TransEnough name change is not associated with Gender Free For All! PDX (who are responsible for this years rally). They are now a separate organization.
Gender (Free) For All (GFFA), under the direction of Del Rapier and Nik Wilhelm, moved forward to address the need of raising visibility and awareness about transgender, genderqueer, intersex, and gender non-conforming people (TGQIGNC) to a broader audience – our global community. While GFFA supports Gender Free For All! Portland’s goals, the necessity for addressing visibility on a larger scale prompted Del and Nik to launch a variety of online programs, including a compendium of TGQIGNC services, the TransEnough blog, and the Trans Faces photo project.
For full details read our press release: http://genderfreeforall.org/?p=208
Hey there! Glad QPDX is talking about the rally and what’s up with it. I was involved with the combined Dyke and Trans Marches in 2008, and the Trans March and Celebration with Gender (Free) For All in 2009, and can say that, in short, the reasons for the fact that the Trans March moved was really because it addressing visibility around gender, whereas the Dyke March is about sexuality – two very different things.
I know that the dyke march has not, historically, had any kind of pre-march entertainment, but I’m sure that they’d welcome someone to take an active hand in organizing that. The email for them is dykemarchpdx@gmail.com, and if you don’t reach them there (that email can be sometimes sparsely checked between seasons), let me know, and I can give you direct contact info for the current organizers.
Gender (Free) For All PDX also, as I understand, would more than welcome organizational hands to actively aid with the rally/march/fundraising process. Their email is transmarchpdx@gmail.com, and there is also a google group by the same name – http://groups.google.com/group/transmarchpdx – and a facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/gffapdx – .and. a group – http://www.facebook.com/gffapdx#!/group.php?gid=46338514662&ref=ts – all of which one can join to keep up to date with what’s going on and where one can directly contact the organizers, find out when meetings are, and take a more direct hand.
Whew! Looks like we def got some things wrong here, although I’m not entirely clear about what is what exactly. But I have gotten some response in planning so I’ll update people as I get things together. Woohoo!