DC Trans*Queer Meet-Up: a Tentative Date/Time/Place
Okay, I’m just going to throw one out there. Dupont Circle (meeting by the fountain), Friday June 29th, at 12 noon. Please respond (or message me) if you would like to come. How does this date/time/place work for you? Do you have any concerns?
Hey folks! Sorry about the absence. This is my “Im tired as shit but I love you so much face” I’ve been taking a music theory class, and I just started rehearsals for a really intense (we have basically 26 rehearsals total before opening night, which is July 19th) production of The Pirates of Penzance, (which, for a Victorian-era operetta, is surprisingly, beautifully queer) and trying to hold my life together.
Although I am still fully committed to the ideals I’ve written about for creating trans* community and trans* space, I think I am going to have to lower my ambitions, at least for now.
The new plan (and feel free to comment on this, make suggestions, etc) is to simply organize a casual meet-up for DC-area trans* queer folk and cis queer- and trans* straight-identified allies (feel free to respond/object to this wording/organization. I would like this space to center trans* queer beings’ experiences) and try to spread it around tumblr.
For myself, I cannot do anything after 6pm mon-fri because of rehearsal. All other times are good, or negotiable. I think a good time frame would be doing this the week of the 24th, the 1st, or the 8th. We should meet in a public place, I’m thinking a coffee shop, for safety reasons.
If everyone gives suggestions of where (from MD, VA, DC, to as specific as a particular place in a particular town) and when would be best for you, I can hopefully come up with a place and time that works for everyone or most of everyone who responds, and then put up a general notice and try to spread it around.
So, my beautiful, lovely tumblr-queers, where and when would you like to meet?
Anonymous asked: Have you thought of opening this up to DC metro area (not exclusively advertising as NoVa)?
Yes. Sorry, been really busy and this thing that I started has gotten 0% of my brainspace. Because of this, I think the solution is just to make a DC-area queer trans* tumblr meet-up. This feels a lot more doable to me.
Thanks for your support and thoughts!
In case it was unclear, I have no idea what I’m doing
Just throwing it out there. I’m not trained. I’m doing this for the entirely selfish reason that I’m trans* and queer and alone in NoVA, and I know I’m not the only one, so lets fucking get together and drink tea and hangout for one night without having to deal with cis assholes who think it’s “interesting” to argue about something that they don’t realize is super-personal.
Queer studies offer us one method for imagining, not some fantasy of an elsewhere, but existing alternatives to hegemonic systems.
Judith Halberstam, “The Queer Art of Failure”
I do not want to spend the summer dreaming of Amherst, MA, my queer elsewhere, but to imagine and see the potential for a queer present in VA, and work to create that present, and bring people together in the process.
My Dream
I’ll get the ball rolling with sharing what I imagine this group to be. I see some couches in a circle, some tea. A project I would be interested in pursuing would be getting together and taking pictures of each other, maybe with cheap disposable cameras, with our phones or our own nice cameras. The person getting photographed has ultimate control over the picture, and the photographer is just facilitating the creation of this self-image. I also imagine free-drawing and just hanging out and talking about whatever. Or reading poetry, or making music.
In my dream there are a bunch of beautiful people helping each other out, respecting each other. No one is in charge, everyone feels comfortable and safe.
Gather, Trans*/Queer Youth of Northern Virginia! Gather and be heard!
So, I’m coming home to good old NoVa in a week and a half and I’ve decided I’m going to start some kind of informal Trans*/Queer Youth Group for trans* and queer people in the area to hang out, talk about stuff, and maybe make some art, music, performance, etc. together. The basic idea is for it to be a collective, but what that means, what we do, how we organize and so forth, is up to you! If you’re interested, follow northernvatransyouthcollective.tumblr.com, and submit your ideas, dreams, hopes, glimmers of a queer utopia, and anything you will need so that this group will be a safe space and accessible for you.
