On American Unity

 Greetings friends, Happy January 22, 2021.

With all the talk about unity I have been hearing lately in the aftermath of insurrection and Treason I think there are some precursors to unity that must happen to make it possible. Unity with diametrically opposed ideas and bad actors is impossible! Unity is like that lofty goal of a “more perfect Union” that we seem to have been backing away from, guided by those on the conservative side over the last 40 or 50 years. What I say here is still evolving, a work in progress in my mind newly sparked by current events and a new Administration trying to calm things down, as they must. My opinions and beliefs may change or be more fully fleshed out over time but I think they are worth saying so I will dive right in…

We ought to, actually MUST, start by setting up a new Fairness Doctrine for The FCC that ends the dissemination of un-factual, falsely divisive and spun bits of fact used to deceive presented as "news". We must dismantle the false-news machine! Only facts, actual events and verifiable truth should be called “News”. Politics should once again require equal time given to opposing views with all parties AND limited to truth and factual information. Bad mouthing and empty accusations against another or pending legislation must end.  “Facts” used should be readily verifiable from credible sources only. Everything else should be clearly labeled and presented as non verifiable opinion, speculation, hypothetical discussion or etc. Violators should be heavily fined, lose their broadcast license or license to own broadcasting facilities depending on the severity of untruth or malicious intent.

If facts and investigation by a broadcaster discovers and reveals flaws or scandals in the government or big business, there may not repercussions for being the whistle-blower, and the DOJ (vetted of traitors or partisan folks like those put there by 45 or others) needs to open an investigation immediately, even if it involves a seated president or office holders. Indictments may be served.

Schools must be held accountable to teach factual and a complete and unbiased spectrum of knowledge, civics and history. There is no excuse for teaching whitewashed bullshit!

We have seen the results of 40s years of anything goes "news”, and have people today so steeped in it that they can't bear to hear the truth or understand right from wrong. Imagine being 40 to 50 years old, having only heard Fox News and right-wing talk shows all your life and believing it all to be true and having so little education you can't grasp what is actual fact. That IS what we have in America today and why there are so many more than one would expect. The military and police forces are full of them today! Unity will never happen under these conditions! Becoming complacent is NOT unity!

We have a very big job to show these people real truth, historical facts and science using the Scientific Method. We must teach critical thinking and logic again and get those folks to accept it as normal. At this point in time, I don’t really expect this to be possible because many Americans are so selfish and feel entitled to dominate others they see as less than or different. The symbols of defeated enemies – Nazis and The Confederacy, to name a couple prominent ones – need to be criminalized. Showing them publicly other than historical re-enactments and in museums should be considered Treason. It looks to me like making nice and not cracking down on them has allowed this resurgence of those ideals and helped foment insurrection and Treason. Freedom of speech is one thing, but acting out in violence and treachery as a result of prevocational speech should not be tolerated, especially in high level leaders, office holders and public figures.

It is a huge task, but if we ever want tangible unity, it has to be done! And it has to be consistent and constant. We have to be careful not to become oppressive or authoritarian in reaction to appalling events, but we can’t just let things go for the sake of “making nice”. Justice must be served for all. We must counter with truth and honest intent in law and jurisprudence as well as in education and social action.

I for one refuse to be united or even complacent with traitors and unrepentant fascists, confederates or supremacists, racists, violent nationalists and etc. Or wrongly educated, wrongly indoctrinated fools for that matter. Embracing the willful ignorance as promoted by the GOP today and by large corporations backing them has created so many mindless minions is NOT unity! It is insanity and will bring the end of Democracy Even if we have an otherwise ideal Administration. And while this new one is a landmark one worth celebrating, I don’t think we will go far enough or be firm enough to solve the underlying problems.  The insurrection planners and their backers remain at large are not going away, and now many of them with the temporary silencing of Parler have learned to use encrypted communications to make further plans, and keep on undermining Democracy. They may not be making so much noise, but they will be back and we must put systems in place rapidly to be ready for them. We must never underestimate the power and incipience of ignorance, especially when held in thrall by sociopaths and haters.

Unity might be able to meet that this threat, but we are far from ready for unity. IMHO.

Good-Bye 2020...

 

Good-bye 2020…

…and for the most part, good fucking riddance!

[Sighs of relief all around. Breathe out the old and evil, breathe in the new and hopeful…]

It has been ages since I sat down and decided to write for my Blog. Some of that was due to the brain sucking power of Facebook, some to circumstance and depression. Chronic pain added a great deal to “circumstance and depression”. But I also, with my ADHD, I’m told that chronic procrastination and an inability to endure tedium are fairly common, and I have those in spades! Even without back pain and joint problems from Arthritis or a resurgence of Dysphoria-like thinking regarding my age or being listed in my medical records as “Morbidly Obese”. I moved to Naperville, Illinois in 2015 to care give for my elderly mother, who passed in 2017.

Then in November I came down with a case of Covid-19, 16 days of Hell! Until then I had thought my pain levels to be extreme at times and often could find no motivation to do anything but sleep, so even the ongoing reinvention of myself that started with Transition and everything stalled—even personal hygiene had slipped because of being so out of sync with who I discovered myself to be in Transition, and then Covid taught me that I did not know pain or helplessness at all and gave me a preview. The nasty headache would not quit and in the worst days that pain was so bad I could not see clearly, everything seemed dim and not quite solid and the pain got so intense that I could think of nothing but it. It hurt so bad I seriously thought of killing myself, but simply could not do anything about those urges because I was too weak and forgetful, something I am very grateful for now. My waking world was reduced to searing pain, worse even than when I had hydrazine poisoning in 1988, and I became so weak and fatigued that I literally could not stand up or hold myself upright without leaning on the walls or furniture. Going to the toilet became a terrible struggle and the brain fog and then confusion and forgetting what I was doing even as I was doing it. That scared the shit out of me and humbled me and put my general (non-covid) state of decline into a new perspective, I saw what the end result of allowing this decline to continue would be. I had just cared for my mother as she was dying and that was a grueling affair physically and emotionally and so the last couple years I have just been floating and letting things slide. She was 93, but generally in good health, but she had given up on the World and her beloved Democracy because it had become such a nasty and deception filled shit-storm and she just did not want to exist anymore because it was all so confusing, and living was so tedious and frustrating being so weak and having to depend on me for everything. Here I am in my mid 60’s I just “celebrated” turning 66 myself but was already very much falling into the same condition as my mother who was 93 when she passed. (For the moment I am not going to rage about politics, though I really want to and I will soon enough).  No, I do not celebrate getting old and etc., especially in capitalist America.  I don’t think there is anything much graceful in it to celebrate!... but now I see it differently. Covid showed me I want to live and do things—like travel and be able to schlep my newly upgraded photo gear with me into scenic places beyond just highway rest stops or my local river and prairie preserves so I can get the good shots too—and so I must change my attitude! Dammit, I am NOT done yet!

I must follow my own advice and be my own hero, again. I can still dislike aging, but I can’t let it make me hopeless and I have to fight the encroaching decrepitude with all the strength I can muster! Perhaps that is the gracefulness and the Gold in our “golden years” – ask me in 10 more years and I may have an answer about that. Even if it isn’t so and years being golden are just a nostalgic pipe-dream of a raving lunatic, I still have to walk through them and press on to the source and center of my hopes and dreams that finally broke free from crushing captivity in 2006 when Eva came fully out and Evan never went home again. So, Covid left me totally drained of energy, took the last bits of physical fitness I still had after my long slump and showed me what real pain was. I was like an old garbage bag emptied of everything that made me, well, me! My mom was that way at 93 as her body failed her and congestive heart failure and dementia took her. Not that I want to compare her to that empty sack, because up to the end she was by no means an empty sack – she remained very sharp until the final week or so, but that image spoke volumes to me. Mom had an excuse – she WAS old! Me, I don’t have an excuse, not really, not yet, not for the long haul anyway. Individual days for time-out and self-care are a different story, but I am getting my medical care back on track in 2021. I found a trans specialist I will be seeing out here in Suburban Chicagoland and a major medical provider that has gone all in on supporting LGBTQ+ folks (Northwestern Medicine). I’m hoping they can get me on track to find relief in my lower back, knees, ankles and lately shoulders too. This is the fight I face this year – getting into some sort of fitness again even though the process will hurt. But I’m worth it and I need to do this if I am to ever reach my goal of GRS. And you, dear readers, are worth it too if you have found yourselves in similar straits. Don’t give up!

Yeah, I have some shit to deal with and fight daily, but we all have something! But I still have stuff to do and if mom is an example of how long most in my family live then I figure I should have 20 more good years before I get to give into folding of the hands and lengthening time to sleep.

There is so much else to catch up on since leaving Riverside, feeling betrayed by some folks in the Trans/LGBTQ community there. The feeling of being kicked in the teeth after trying so hard to advocate for equality and trans acceptance still is present in these memories. It sent me into an emotional nose dive in my first years out here too because I tried to remain as aloof as possible to avoid being hurt again, this time by people and things I had no experience with previously. Even so I found myself hosting a Meetup group and as such one local newspaper latched on to me as sort of a local LGBTQ spokesperson around the time of the Pulse Massacre in Florida. Any time something LGBTQ newsworthy happened I got a phone call, and was thrust into things before I was ready. Though I suppose these things were ready for me to get off my fairly substantial butt. And National politics were impossible for me to pass by and I have been rather outspoken and lost several long-time friends. But I am gradually working back into doing the work that I do love again out here though the social environment out here is way different than the Inland Empire was and I am glad to have taken things slow. I did manage to get out to Washington DC in 2019 for the big Trans Visibility march. Though that has been the last march or protest I have been able to endure because a few days later my Left knee fell apart, Arthritis had stripped the cartilage out and suddenly I was in agony and could barely walk and had to alter and cancel further plans for the East Coast. I have had stem-cell treatment that worked to get me through this year but it is getting bad again, so that needs more work too.

 I am one of the original founding Board members of Naper Pride, Inc. and we are slowly gaining a good reputation in town with the City Council and Police.  2020’s pride fest was cancelled by Covid and so much of this year has been regrouping and team building for our core leadership and getting ready to make an even bigger festival in September a reality. I was blessed to Preach in 2019 on Pentecost Sunday, June 9th at my Church here in town (First Congregational, UCC, Naperville), the Pastor was to be out of town that day and asked me if I would be willing to fill in. That was also the day of a big 2^nd annual Pride Parade in our neighboring city of Aurora, IL and so after the Service many of us from Church rushed over there and marched in the parade. My sermon Pride and Pentecost was amazingly well received, as I equated the Spirit of Pentecost with the Spirit of Pride in being who we are openly and unashamedly.

Hopefully the link here will take you to the video on that Sermon. It has taken me this long to get the tools and learn how to edit together bits from different sources so it is more presentable than just a phone video.

Other newish stuff… I am working with a young Writer just graduated from the local College here in town on a book about my life and some of the very human and very odd and conflicted folks I have encountered up to this point. My dark days of drug abuse, life abuse and hopelessness will be in there, and my transition and reinvention of self and more details about activism and being hurt deeply by a community leader and my move to the Midwest and some of my travels too. Even my struggle with pain, depression and aging.  And I expect I have lost just about all the followers I had before my move and will have to get out and noticed once again because I know I will have more to say going forward. I must say that I am a bit daunted by the idea of putting my past life out into the public eye in more depth than ever before, and hearing the negative voices that will no doubt have horrible things to say, but that fear kept me in my closet for my first 50 years and now it isn’t going to stop me from putting my life out there so that maybe someone else can find strength to be themself openly. If I can help or save just one or two from the anguish that I went thru then I am glad to be out and visible.

Hugs and Blessings,
Eva-Genevieve!

  

My friend's Rainbow Journey

I recently met someone from Japan, one who I now consider to be my friend, who is traveling around the world talking to Transgender folk and sharing their stories on his blog. His name is Nao.  I want to share his blog with you because he just shared my story. It is written in Japanese and the automated translation doesn't work so well so I apologise if that doesn't work well for you either.

Rainbow Journey

Lately I have been caregiving for my elderly mother and have been very scarce on line but I still get my hand in with occasional activist things here in Illinois. As I say this I can feel the backlog of all that has happened weighing me down. Realistically, I probably never will get caught up in here even though I keep thinking that I will try once I get past the inevitable with my mother, when that day arrives in a few weeks or months. You  know what "they" say about good intentions though...

My Ninth Anneversary

Today. July 24, is my ninth anniversary as Eva-Genevieve! It was exactly 9 years ago that I made the permanent switch from Evan to Eva, from male to female in my outward gender presentation. All told these have been the absolute best years of my life even with the occasional hiccups of the human condition, both mine and those of others. I am not ashamed of, nor have I any major regrets over the choices I have been making since that balmy July day in 2006. Even the ones that have turned out to be mistakes have contained disguised blessings because I have tried to walk humbly before my God. I am thankful to God that I am alive and have my health and even a few wits occasionally - none of these are things I have managed to obtain on my own nor deserved after the wreck I made of my life prior to transition. God is Great and now a chapter in my life closes and a new one begins. I'll be all right so long as I proceed in the light of God's magnificent grace. I will miss so many of you here in Southern California who have enriched my life in the most amazing ways and I will carry all of you in my heart as I go. Tuesday evening I get on the Southwest Chief heading East to make my home in Illinois. I will arrive (God and Amtrak willing) on July 30.

And so the story begins...

Still I Rise – A message for Women’s History Month and Palm Sunday 2015

Eva-Genevieve! Scarborough – March 29, 2015

I am honored to be here today. I am always humbled when I am asked to speak, especially in Church because I know the depths to which I have sunk and from which I have been rescued and I embrace my humanity, but yet the Spirit of God lives within me and so, like the rocks, I must speak out.  Figuratively I’ve been asked to drive the car today but it is just as likely, or more, that in other circumstances I’ll be the one to jump out and push – either is an honor because both bring us closer to God, God who has made and molded us and given us purpose. I can only pray that my words here today glorify our God and are used to lift you up.

Normally I would read the passage first before speaking but since I’m already coming at this from a somewhat unexpected direction I’m putting the cart in front of the horse and I’m going to save the reading until I close.

I asked if there was to be a topic beyond being generally something suited to Women’s History month figuring that a Scripture passage would be forthcoming and I could talk, maybe about Ruth or another of the heroines of our faith, but no, that would have been easy.  I am familiar with Scripture… and Science-Fiction – I can talk your ear off about warp drives and scientific concepts, great Space Opera, and even great women sci-fi authors, but a poem by Maya Angelou? Not so much – I’ve never been much of a reader of poetry until very recent years – I suppose it wasn’t until I had accepted myself fully as God’s woman that poetry ever resonated in me because my spirit was not free and could not resonate in the ways it does now. What a difference it makes when one wholly accepts who and what God has created them to be. And if there is any one thing I would like to impart to every one of you is that you need to embrace yourself, nurture yourself, and love yourself because God has made you perfect! With God you can rise.  You can mount up with wings as an eagle! You can feel God’s loving embrace even when your world is being rocked and shaken all around you. Embrace God and then embrace yourself and then you will know what it means to be free, to rise!

Speaking of Maya Angelou on the occasion of her death, President Obama said she “had the ability to remind us that we are all God’s children, that we have something to offer.” And I believe that we all have that ability in us to rise! She found it and I have found it and many of you here today I know have found it.

Now I know from recent-past events that Maya was an amazing woman who from very humble, abused and troubled beginnings rose to great fame and could claim as friends Martin Luther King and Barack Obama. These are people who most certainly know what it means to “rise” in the sense of the poet. So the other day I read Maya’s poem “Still, I Rise” for the first time wondering what I would hear. I was blown away because here was that same message, the very same thing I have discovered through my painful and cathartic journey the long way around to being a woman and often spoken of, but here the poet has spoken so much more eloquently, so clearly, so brilliantly I can feel my spirit bearing witness with the Holy Spirit that herein is foundational truth. So this is why I must put my humble words first because hers shine like the sun! If I were to read her words first then there would be nothing left for me to say.

There is also some intersectionality here—a word my Pastor Jane Quandt has been using a lot of these days—some of which I have never spoken to publicly before and so I am stretched a bit today. Try being a Christian and an activist for Transgender and LGB equality, or any justice issue for that matter, and you will rapidly find opposition on both sides and you left in the middle feeling all alone, and in these past few weeks this is again stormy territory – friends have been divided and misunderstandings and angers have flared and I don’t know what too do and just like that, I feel alone and caught in the middle, but I’m in good company here. Because I know upon whose promises I stand I can say with Maya Angelou, “still, I rise”. I think I have the right sense of it, only I lack the eloquence, the depth and clarity of the poet.

And lest I put Maya on too high a pedestal and she become hard for any of us to relate to let me hasten to say that she had to pull herself up by her own boot laces and make something of her life. It was not particularly easy for her, she knew heartbreak, betrayals and the loss of friends, suffered much, yet she stood strong – an example for us all to follow. Anyone who has felt the stings of prejudice, bigotry, abuse, oppression and etc. can find comfort, strength and hope enough to hold out for rising time right here, right now! Have you been bent over and broken, stooped down before your oppressor weeping bitter tears and wanting only to die? I have, and yet my time for triumph over my enemies came. Though I came close to ending it just a moment before the miracle happened, I am so very glad that by God’s grace I stuck around – Still, I Rise!

And yes, even though we celebrate Women’s history this month, you men here can also find what it takes to “rise” and not as my partner Ken would have said, lose your “man-card”, though you may find yourself becoming a better and stronger man, father or husband in the process! Anyone who has been rejected or hurt, or anyone who has fallen short of the glory of God with just a glimpse of this truth can grab hold of Christ by faith and you can shout it to the heavens too… Still, I rise!

Galatians 3:28 says of those who believe,

“ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Still, We Rise!

But I also see God’s fingerprints all over this because intersectionality is God’s special place in our lives and our world – it is where you’ll find God at work today. How else could any of us relate to Scripture at all? It spans thousands of years of written history and thousands more through oral tradition, some of it is told in great epic style, some as law with specific details for the priestly order and some in parables or even simple children’s tales and even some boring lists of genealogy. Yet when we read God’s word we understand it because it resonates with experiences or feelings we have had and so, whoever we are, we can come to believe and trust God – we may not be able to explain or define God but we feel God. And when we hear the words that resonate in the depths of our souls and spirits, as do many of Maya’s it is here at the crossroads where the supernatural intersects the natural; we know God is speaking to us, working in us and using us because it feels familiar. If we stand by faith and hold to the truth that resonates in our souls we can and will still rise.

And it is this sense of familiarity that I have found in Maya’s words that I would highlight briefly today. This is the intersection where God’s messengers are standing on the soapbox decrying the evils of the day. This is the intersection where Christ came to bear our sins on the Cross, to die for us and to give us new life, and when we internalize this and own Him then the Gospel becomes familiar to us and we begin to live it—

 not because of the law as many denominations say but because he first loved us we love Him, and Still, we Rise!!

Today is Palm Sunday and so I would like you to reflect on this just a bit over the next week as we approach Easter, and then remember not only that we shall rise with Christ in this newness of life but we can do it right here and right now! We don’t have to wait any longer!

Today all over the news and the Social media feeds we hear voices calling out “Black lives matter” or “Trans lives matter” and others holler back “All lives matter”. Which of these is right? Where in this gap would Jesus be standing? That conversation is still raging in our Nation today and we find some truth on all sides of it and we find humanity on all sides of it and we all have to stretch, we all have to broaden our horizons to see the diversity of the human race more clearly and become more inclusive in our way of thinking and living. We behold the light of Gods truth, which says it isn’t simply one of these but it is all of these yet we must stand together with the last and the least of these who have been trodden under foot , no matter the color of their skin or their gender or any other God given trait and when we do, Still WE rise!

And we will rise as we reach out, as Jesus has said, to lift up the downtrodden and care for the homeless and the elderly and the weak and sick and unwanted among us. We help those who have been cast down or kicked to the curb to stand again and find their self worth so that they also can rise. I think the solution comes down to each one of us being called to reach out to someone in need right where we are; we are to be instant (ready, prepared), in season and out to speak, preach, teach and most of all to help others rise. To my fellow transgender brothers and sisters I say just being ourselves openly can give someone else the courage to rise up. And to all I say none of us have to do great and powerful works but Jesus did say that we who believe would do greater things than what those in his day saw him do! We Should Rise!

So, finally, with these things in mind here is the reading for today’s message, Maya Angelou’s “Still, I Rise”…

“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
   Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
   I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
   I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

   I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
   I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
   I rise
   I rise
   I rise.”

Christmas at First Congregational Church of Riverside CA

Basically this is just a link to my "4Shared" site where I have posted a bunch of Advent season photos...

http://www.4shared.com/folder/52X0htoX/Christmas_in_Riverside_at_FCC.html

...some of which I also shared on Facebook with this commentary "Christmas Eve at First Congregational Church of Riverside - I wanted to be sure and capture these events today since this may well be my last Christmas here in Riverside and I want to savor it all. First there were Christmas Carols on the front steps. Then Project Food served up a hot meal for anyone who came by - we do that every Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 PM - and then our Christmas Eve Songs and Lessons candlelight service. And then a quick stroll around downtown - The Mission Inn lights, the ice skating, City Hall all light up (Up there on the 7th floor where the tarps are stretched is where we held Royalty on the Roof in November). So there you have Christmas Eve in the heart of Riverside!"

https://www.facebook.com/EvaGenevieve/posts/10153028426277323?pnref=storyhttps://www.facebook.com/EvaGenevieve/posts/10153028426277323?pnref=story

Hugs, Blessings and wishes for a Happy New Year to you all,
Eva-Genevieve!

Regarding Riverside's proclamation - answering a comment

Comment regarding Riversides Proclamation (posted below) 

"I'm a cis- bi- ally of Trans folks. I'm wondering about the proclamation as the LGBTQ DOR rather than TDOR. Do you think adding the LGBQ diminishes the focus on Trans violence issues? Can you share any history as to how/why the city chose to proclaim it that way? I have some Trans friends who are, I think understandably, upset with it. Thank you--Joe Reilly"

No, actually I think expanding the scope supports these issues because it brings them out into the open where they ought to be – there is no diminishing of the real issues. Being a victim of violence, of bullying and other hate crimes is not something limited to Trans folks. These things happen to Gays, to Women, to people of color, to anyone seen as different and so even with statistics that are horrible with respect to Trans folks we can’t be exclusive. We don’t get to stand totally apart if we want to integrate back into society as equals. We have to reach out to others and support them if we want them to do the same for us.

Building community is what we are trying to accomplish here in Riverside and it must include everyone or it will fail. To be included means we have to learn to be inclusive and we Trans folks have to initiate it because right now we are seen as the bottom level of humanity by many. Maybe we will be the ones to start resolving it IF we don’t shut others out in the process, even if some of them have done it to us. Change can, must, start with us.  We have to learn to share our special days and work through our issues with others who have similar experiences. There are not enough days in the year to give every identity their own special day. What we need to be doing is merging together with others to put an end to the problem of bullying and hate crimes and violence at the level of it being a human problem rather than a Trans only issue.

Many cities have established LGBT centers with lots of services and groups and outreach to specific target groups like Trans and Homeless youth & etc., but Riverside has no such thing other than one privately funded shelter that serves LGBT youth under 17. The only sense of established “community” is a downtown coffee house and a couple gay bars.  If the facts I have been given by our Human Relations Commission are correct then this proclamation is the very first City acknowledgement of anyone in the LGBT spectrum and as such we—a diverse group of Trans and LGB activists and CIS allies—agreed that it would be counterproductive to take this first crumb from the City and assign it exclusively to just one segment of the spectrum when we have many Gay and Lesbian folk and others who have struggled for acknowledgement here for 30, 40 or more years. I have personally spent over 8 years working towards this end and have put out call after call in support groups, on-line forums and on Facebook for trans people to join me in this work but only a tiny handful have taken part, so out of necessity I turned to our long-time LGB and CIS allies and our progressive Churches. Without them we would not have held any of our 4 annual Trans Days of Remembrance, we would not have been able to host an entire week of Trans Awareness events Nov 17^th -23^rd here this year, and we would have no services at all here for trans folks so we must not and will not throw our allies under the bus now.

Were this LA or Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco or even San Luis Obispo there would already be an LGBT establishment such as these cities have and we would have been able to handle this proclamation differently. However because there is minimal LGBT establishment here we have to have something to build upon in order to establish it in a lasting way. Mostly the “community” here is just little splinter groups and factions in which everyone nitpicks each other when we try to work together. In fact every time one of these groups tries to get investors for a project or to establish an LGBT center here other factions start undermining the effort and being divisive, so no one invests in our “community”. Mark Takano our Congressman is openly gay but he has distanced himself from the LGBT community here because it is so unstable and immature. Therefore we asked that LGBT Day of Remembrance be proclaimed annually on Nov 21^st because we still wish to honor and respect the Trans people of the world on the 20^th and stand with them while trying to establish a sense of common ground for growth here. We see this as expanding rather than diminishing the impact of TDoR observances.

With this proclamation coming from the City it was our hope that it would be a foundation upon which to start uniting fragmentary groups back together without all the attendant sniping of the past, but already trans people who don’t seem to grasp the bigger situation are sniping and complaining and undermining the very historic significance of this accomplishment. So, no, I don’t think your trans friends’ upset is understandable at all. I’m sure I will get flak for saying this but I believe it is the ones complaining and grumbling who need to change, to stop being so exclusive of others in their thinking, to work with others instead of pushing their it’s-our-day-and-ours-only kind of agenda at the rest of us gender and sexually diverse folk. The Trans “community” will never come into its own until we accept being equal with others that are not Trans because otherwise we continue teaching people that some are special and others not, and that just happens to be the root of the entire problem! As humans we should be working to end the problems common to humans. Anything less is futile in my opinion.

This is the released version of the Proclamation with the corrected date. The first issue with the 20th on it was an error. 

Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov 20, 2014 at First Congregational Church of Riverside, Day 4 of Transgender Awareness Week

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Worthy of Celebration...

The LGBTQ... community in the City of Riverside were presented with this City Proclamation by Riverside's Human Relations Commission last night during our Transgender Awareness Week kickoff event. This is worthy of celebration!!! Many people have spent many long and hard years of advocacy and activism to make this possible. Thanks to every one of you!

Gabriel Maldonado, the Commission's LGBT Liaison did the presenting and I did the receiving. It was a great honor - this is yours now!

Hugs and Blessings,

Eva-Genevieve!

Riverside California's Week of Transgender Awareness

Here is the text content of the flier - can be copied and shared as text. Thanks EG!

Total Trans* immersion! See https://www.facebook.com/RTGA.2014 for updates and additions to this list.

Monday, Nov. 17th: LGBT and ally residents of Riverside are invited to be part of city's first Equality Alliance of Riverside meeting where you will hear from local LGBT leadership, our community's needs, and ways to help in creating an LGBT-friendly Riverside. Please RSVP by Nov 15 @ Dr.DiSalvatore@gmail.com or text (951) 224-4798 for details.

Tuesday the 18th, Trans-Basics 6-9PM La Sierra High Auditorium 4145 La Sierra, Riverside w/Rev. Benita Ramsey, Kristie & Jaden Handzlik from Temecula PFLAG. Join a national call-in at 10amPST, please register to get the call information @http://bit.ly/TransLivesMatter. (Type link exactly as written or it will error! Also a TransLivesMatter event 3:00pm Vermont & Santa Monica in LA).

Wednesday the 19th, First Congregational Church will be a free screening of “Trans: The Movie” at 6:30PM followed by Q&A with Sarah Tyler, the mother of Danann, a trans child featured in the movie. Free admission.

Thursday the 20th: VA Loma Linda 11:30 AM till 1PM will hold its First Annual, open to the public, formal TDoR observance 11201 Benton St, Loma Linda, CA 92354 Contact Shelly Ann for more info shellyannahlerich@live.com. 

Then at 7 PM First Congregational Church hosts their 4th annual, Transgender Day of Remembrance observance in Downtown Riverside with Rev. Rizi Xavier Timane, a transgender minister, an author, a recording artist, and an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, Anna Tower who lost her trans-identified partner to suicide, and Jaden and Kristie Handzlik who also spoke at last year’s TDoR. Free admission. FCC is a Safe Space—come as you identify!

Friday the 21st at the Grier Pavilion 7th floor, Riverside City Hall from 7 to 9 PM is “Royalty on the Rooftop” a presentation of Inland Empire Drag Kings and Queens. Admission $7 for adults, $5 for students, free under 12.

Saturday morning the 22nd, In the morning at Riverside City College’s Cosmetology facility, on Olivewood Ave, from 9 AM to 1 PM the students there will host a free Makeover Day. Free haircut, style, mani/pedi, makeover, makeup help, or those interested in what it feels like to be made up as the opposite gender. Several trans individuals will be speaking during the event too — all are welcome. Come have some fun!

Saturday evening: VerbalEyze: Youth Open Mic & Arts Exhibit 6:00 Art Exhibition/7:00 Open Mic. The Unity Center 2025 Chicago Avenue, Suite A 20, Riverside 92507, Sponsors: Rainbow Pride Alliance, TruEvolution, PFLAG Temecula, in conjunction with CAGSI. To sign up for open mic contact us at riversidetransgenderawareness@gmail.com

Sunday, the 23rd at First Congregational Church at 3:30 PM – an original one act play, "Now and Then Beyond the Glass" presented by Bent Not Broken Inspired and friends followed immediately by Riverside’s 4th annual TDoR Candlelight Memorial remembering Trans folks and others murdered for simply daring to be themselves and those who supported them. 

Followed at 5PM by the First Congregational Church’s afternoon “As You Are” service themed for Trans Day of Remembrance too—Eva-Genevieve! Scarborough will be speaking. FCC is a Safe Space—come as you identify, ALL are welcome as you are!