Twelve-state tour profiles daily lives of transgender people, from Florida to Oregon
Washington, DC—The National Center for Transgender Equality and Transilient announce a partnership for the summer of 2017 to conduct a coast-to-coast project to present transgender identities in an online photo, video and profile project. Nicknamed, the #SummerofTrans, the project will interview dozens of trans and non-binary people in twelve states from Florida to Oregon, sharing their stories through social media and the website: www.wearetransilient.com. The #SummerofTrans kicks off Wednesday, June 28 in Miami, Florida and will conclude August 6 in Portland, Oregon. The collaboration builds upon prior work conducted by Transilient in 2016.
“This project attempts to humanize, educate and destroy the assumption that trans folks are solely defined by their physical experience and their oppression,” said Transilient Executive Director Basil Vaughn Soper. “Our hope is to bring about understanding and tackle transphobia in Trump’s America. This summer, we aim to weave transgender lives into the overall human experience instead of merely focusing on their transition.”
“Despite the high visibility of trans people in popular media, news and politics, far too many Americans simply don’t understand trans people, largely because they don’t know any; through this project—and our ongoing work—we hope to ameliorate that awareness gap,” said NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling.
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The National Center for Transgender Equality is the nation’s leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people. www.transequality.org
Transilient is a traveling photo and interview-based project which candidly documents transgender and gender non-conforming people in their day-to-day lived realities using only their voices. www.wearetransilient.com
