I just finished a weekend of Pridefest Milwaukee (or rather a Friday and a Saturday). And I had a lot of fun... met people in person I'd only known on the Internet, saw a lot of cool performers, ate food I shouldn't be eating... Pridefest has always been fun for me. It even had a polyamory-inclusive event and a furry events... although I'll go into those later in this letter.
It was sorely lacking in transgender and bisexual inclusiveness, as it always has been. A friend of mine brought this up on Facebook, where they said that they had of course included the T... by citing a drag show. Because of this, and because I know there are plenty of organizers who think things exactly like this, I'd like to mention a few things that hopefully will help you create a more inclusive atmosphere in the future.
Some of these problems are not the fault of the actual organizers, so this is directed at not only them but at presenters, vendors, and perhaps even attendees.
1. Know that transgender people and other gender variant people DO attend pride events.
In Milwaukee it would have been hard to throw a coin and not hit a trans person at some points. And I'm not even including exclusive drag performers (people who only do performance drag but are not transgender or transsexual), who may or may not be considered transgender or gender variant depending on how you look at it. We were everywhere. There were trans guys running around with their surgery scars showing, trans women trading advice, and when you got to the smaller drag shows (which were more catered to transgender people than other events) there were loads of us.
There always are. The last year I went dressed in this ridiculous scouting outfit in an effort to mark myself as trans (back when I still had some visibility, sigh) and there were trans women, trans men, and genderqueers stopping me to talk. We are not an insignificant part of the Pride base.
2. Drag events do not count as transgender inclusiveness, and pretending they do is actually really offensive.
Yes, drag performers are included in a number of definitions of "transgender." I neither support nor discourage this, it is what it is. I also personally enjoy drag shows. But realize that transgender people have for decades been equated--not just associated, but equated--with drag performers. But there is a big distinction. An exclusive drag performer can turn off that gender performance. A drag queen, for example, does not generally need to worry about the same things a trans woman does. A drag king does not need to deal with the same issues as a trans man. So when you equate "trans inclusiveness" with "two hour long drag show," what you wind up doing--albeit unintentionally--is downplay those of us who are dealing with living transgender and replacing us with people who do it for art. It's like having a straight guy who has gay sex for money at an event and saying it's gay inclusiveness.
That's not to say that drag performers don't encounter trouble (just as any minority does), and there are drag performers who are also transsexual (I've found this is especially true for drag kings), but keep in mind "transgender" does not mean "drag."
3. When it comes to entertainers, there are plenty of transgender performers out there who are not drag performers.
Pride events are often entertainment events, and as such there is going to be different programming than, say, an educational event or a conference where one would expect a lot of very specific programming. But that's not an excuse to not be inclusive.
There are plenty of transgender performers who are not drag queens and kings. There are comedians like Ian Harvie, spoken word artists like Kit Yan and Julia Serano, musical artists like Bell Nuntita, Kim Petras, Katastrophe, Joshua Klipp, and Alex Davis. Again, that's not to say you can't also have drag performers, but balance it out a bit.
4. Events that should be inclusive should be inclusive.
At Milwaukee Pride this year there was this history exhibit which had posters. The posters had events in LGBT history... or rather LG history... and markers to add your own events.
There were a lot of omissions and mistakes in it. One of the most egregious? It referred to Stonewall as an event between police and "angry gays and lesbians," completely stripping out the massive influence of trans women and gender-noncomforming people (a friend of mine has posted screenshots). There was very little mention of not only trans people, but also bisexuals and women were not well represented, either.
Tucked in the corner there was a student-created exhibit which had the stories of Lou Sullivan and Sylvia Rivera, but it was being headed by somebody with little knowledge of trans issues (I know this because she tried to explain to me what gay trans men were).
People who went to the exhibit added a lot of historical points that the original creators forgot... and they're going to forget some things... but there was no way we should have needed to add damned near everything.
Make an effort to make events like that inclusive. Remember that Google exists. Don't give me that "transgender people didn't impact gay history" bullshit. Gays and lesbians were separate movements for a portion of their history, too.
This includes not only historical events, but also stuff like safer sex events and health events and film events. These really need transgender-specific information and content. I should not go to a kiosk that has eight films at an LGBT event in which none of them feature a serious transgender character or creator.
5. Vendors! Be aware that we exist!
Trans people aren't known for our disposable income (which is why some groups cut us off of their list when they're trying to get companies to love queer people), but keep in mind that like most people when we go to an event that has vendors we're not just going to ignore them most of the time.
There were maybe twenty vendor tables at Pridefest... three of them had transgender-inclusive merchandise, and not very much of it at that. One table was run by three nice gentleman who had lots of books, videos, and magnets for LGB people... and four buttons, hidden off in the corner, geared toward trans people (I did in fact buy one). There was another stand that had some bracelets, keychains, and pendants with transgender flags on them, and a paint-tattoo stand had one transgender design. The rest of them had... nothing.
There were leather flags and bear flags everywhere... no transgender flags. There was gay fiction and lesbian fiction and "general queer" fiction... and no trans fiction. There were more purchases geared toward furries than trans people, and while I love the furries, there is something really bizarre about accommodating them more than people who are actually in your acronym.
Also be aware that we notice. While I was walking through there--and I did so several times--I ran into many trans people who commented on the lack of inclusion.
6. If you have an area for organizations, invite trans groups if none initially sign up.
There were no transgender-centered groups that showed up this year. I'm not sure why, as there has usually been at least one, but keep in mind that trans people really do need resources. If none sign up, invite some to at least try getting some information out there. If nothing else, put out some information for local groups.
7. Don't confine transgender and gender-variant stuff--and in fact any other "obscure" stuff--to youth concerns.
There's this bizarre thing going on--and it was totally obvious at Pridefest this year--where people assume that trans and gender variant people stop existing when we turn twenty four. There was an event this year about gender-variant children... and that's absolutely wonderful, but why was it the only serious transgender or gender variant event? There was a hell of a lot of inclusiveness in the youth area compared to elsewhere... there was a nod to "alternative" relationships like polyamory, there were bisexual and transgender flags flying, there was even a furry workshop where people could make ears and a tail. But there was barely even a nod to these things elsewhere, implying that these are things we are going to grow out of when we finally transform into normal gays and lesbians.
8. Why do I even need to bring this up? Can you have at least one gender neutral restroom? And can you please encourage non-binary language?
I don't habitually use gender-neutral restrooms anymore. I am a trans man, at the point in transition where I pass 100% as if I were a cis male, so I use men's restrooms. I consider bothering over restrooms to be a bit of a cliché. Picking a restroom has never been top priority for me.
But there are plenty of trans and gender variant people who aren't in my position. There are trans men and trans women who don't pass well yet and aren't comfortable drawing attention to themselves by walking into a men's or women's room. There are people who identify as neither man nor woman. People who are dressing in drag and have to make awkward decisions. And people with disabilities who show up with caregivers of the opposite sex (there were quite a few of those this year). There were probably six restrooms there... all of which were single-sex.
Surveys should also be inclusive, if you happen to be running a stand that uses them. I took a survey as somebody who quit smoking that was pretty good in this regard (with four options for gender and then a write-in), but others made you choose "male" or "female." Now, for me and many other transsexuals this isn't a big personal deal for the same reason restrooms aren't... I just circle "male..." but there are people for whom this just won't work.
When presenting avoid phrases like "ladies and gentleman," or worse, just one of those. I know there are plenty of gay guys and drag queens who think it's cute to refer to everyone as "girls" and "ladies," but it's obnoxious and for some of us it's triggering. "Ladies and gentleman" is a canned phrase, anyway.
9. LISTEN!
Even if organizers of events don't always do things perfectly (and none of us do, it's not like I'm Mr. Inclusive myself), actually listening and responding to concerns can really change my opinion of a person or an event.
