#44 (aka: Good stuff)

There very well may be more ranting later tonight, but for now, here is some good news:

- The Greater Boston PFLAG Pride and Passion Party last Saturday went really well. It was a lot of fun, getting to meet the four other Elsie Frank scholarship winners and Pam Garramone (the executive director of GBPFLAG), as well as being in the presence of Congressman Barney Frank (Elsie's son, it turns out!). What was weird about it was that all these people knew who I was long before I even learned their names. Strangestrangestrange, 'cause I didn't even have to submit a photo with the scholarship application!

- Tomorrow is Mass. Youth Pride 2007. I'm going with a friend on the planning committee for the Pride, so I get to see all the behind-the-scenes action that I wouldn't have gotten to view otherwise. There are a couple of great (apparently Queer) Boston (and surrounding area) bands coming to play, and Amanda Palmer from the awesome self-proclaimed "Brechtian punk cabaret" band The Dresden Dolls is being awarded by students from her high school (she is actually from Massachusetts) at the Pride. She's awesome. Hopefully, since she gets to be backstage, and I get to be backstage (because of the scholarship announcement), I'll get to meet her. And while I'm not /really/ a fan-boi, it would kind of be an honor to meet her since I respect her so much.

Anyway, I hope y'all are well.

#43 (aka: On the map)

Well, this is just wonderful. :D

A GLBT newspaper out of Boston, Bay Windows, wrote an article about a couple of the winners of the Elsie Frank scholarship. It just came out today online, and will also be in their current print issue. Here it is for all to see here:

"PFLAG event to honor safe schools activists"

As a senior this year at Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield, Elliot Holloway began coming out publicly as a transgender man, but he found that his school had few supportive spaces or resources for LGBT students. He, along with other students, decided to create one on their own and founded their school’s first gay/straight alliance (GSA). Holloway also tried to educate his classmates on transgender issues, doing a presentation on the discrimination faced by transgender people as his final project in his senior contemporary issues class.

“Where I go to school it’s not a very liberal place. GLBT people don’t fit in very well … They can be out, but they can’t flaunt it,” said Holloway. “And it’s hard for transgender people to be out and not flaunt their gender identity. But I refuse to be silent because that’s one of the worst things you can do in the queer community.”

Sammy Sass, a senior at Buckingham, Browne and Nichols who lives in Cambridge, also worked to make her school a more welcoming place for LGBT people and their families. As the daughter of two moms, Sass immediately gravitated towards the GSA but was disappointed at how small the group was. For four years she worked to raise the profile of the GSA, holding the school’s first Day of Silence, an annual event organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to draw attention to the silencing of LGBT youth in schools. That first year, Sass said, about 12 students participated by remaining silent for the day, but by her senior year that number had grown to about 70; additionally, over 200 students wore stickers that day marking them as a supporter of the Day of Silence. The GSA was officially on the map.

“It was really important just to have a GSA and let people know it was there,” said Sass.
Greater Boston Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will honor Holloway and Sass, along with three other Bay State high school seniors, for their work in their schools and communities by presenting them with the first Elsie Frank Scholarship Awards at the organization’s fifth annual Pride and Passion Party on May 5. Greater Boston PFLAG has presented scholarships in past years, but this year the organization renamed them after the late Elsie Frank, an honorary board member and longtime supporter of the organization and mother to Congressman Barney Frank. Her family, including Congressman Frank, will be on hand to present the scholarships.

The Pride and Passion Party, which will be held at the Boston Ballet Building, will also honor two trailblazers in improving conditions in the state’s public schools for LGBT youth: Jeff Perrotti, founding director of the Department of Education’s Safe Schools program, and Kim Westheimer, another former director of the program. The two activists used their experiences to write their book on creating safe schools, 2002’s When the Drama Club is not Enough: Lessons from the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students.

As for the next generation of trailblazers, both Sass and Holloway said they intend to continue their LGBT activism after they graduate and go onto college. Holloway said he ultimately hopes to become a community youth worker and help other trans youth. When he was first coming out, he said a transgender community worker in Northampton provided crucial support to help him through the process.

“I would like to make the kind of difference that the community workers I have known, to make the same kind of difference they made. They were there when none of my friends knew what was going on because I knew that what we talked about was between us … They’ve changed my life, and I think it’s time to give back,” said Holloway.

The Pride and Passion Party will be held May 5 at the Boston Ballet Building, 19 Clarendon St., Boston. The scholarships will be presented at a 5 p.m. reception, and the party will begin at 6:30 p.m. To purchase tickets or find out more call 781.891.5966 or visit gbpflag.org.

Linkage: http://www.baywindows.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&AudID=0813BC739F2044E5A03DCF2DE3FDF7C9&tier=4&id=C249932F475E4C2C84CCC664C74D4410

#42 (aka: Important trans short film)

At True Colors this year, the overlying theme was "Family Matters". To reaffirm that theme, a video was shown in the opening ceremonies that was created by TransYouth Family Advocates. It's a really touching film. (Peterson, have you seen the whole thing? 'Cause whether or not you have, here it is for all to see:)

#41 (aka: Odd-kosh mah-gosh)

Today marks what is probably the strangest day, emotion-wise, for me. EVER. Curious? Here we go:

- My personal fitness class was just ending, and one of the head teachers comes up and tells one of my fellow senior classmates and I that we need to be in the auditorium for a class meeting (aka: lecture). So, we go in there, and right away I can tell that this is just like all the other "class meetings" we've had, where the administration are the ones talking, and we, the class, are sitting silently without an opportunity to submit any input. The meeting is about a couple of incidents that have happened in the last week or so that both the administration, as well as the majority of the class ourselves, are quite offended by. But, a big reason for our offense is that, frankly, the majority of us also don't know exactly what happened to require this meeting in the first place! That is how it usually goes with class meetings, though -- the people who know what's going on don't say anything, and those of us who don't just sit back and listen, hoping to understand but at the same time staying out of it so we don't become suspects. But today, I got angry. I finally became furious with the administration. I realized fully, This isn't right. Those of us who are innocent should not be held accountable for stuff we don't know anything about. Then I felt myself getting more worked-up than I knew I should in a crowded setting like the meeting, so I got myself out of there. I started to cry, and hyperventilate, and I got out of there. Needless to say, it was a difficult half-hour.

But then.......

- After the meeting, and after the seniors were permitted to have lunch (because, yeah, the meeting occured during the large part of what should have been our lunchtime), I went to chorus. I was expecting to be made even more pissed off, but it turned out to be really fun -- we laughed and sang (moderately, so we don't wreck our voices) and joyously carried on. I'm realizing now that my chorus teacher is not the reason that I go to chorus, because if she was, I'd be long out of that class by now. I've realized that the reason I keep going back there is because of the other high school chorus members. All eight of 'em. I was thinking about school today, looking around at my class during our meeting, and it came to me: There's a chance that I'll never see some of these people, some of which I've just started to become friends with, ever again. I need to be supportive and respectful of them, and I need to make as much of these last nineteen days of our schooling together as positive as it can be. And that's the same mentality I had going into chorus today, as well. Tonight will be our last concert together. It will be the last one I'll be in with them. It will be the last event where I can stand next to one or two of them and look at them as we take our bows and think, I'm so proud of you; of us. After tonight, as I watch future concerts and see them graduate, I'll still be proud. But, tonight is an end for us. And I'm going to give all of my voice to our songs. And I'm going to look into that crowd as they sit at their tables and in the bleachers as we sing, and I'm not going to think about my chorus teacher at all. I'm going to lead, and I'm going to follow, and I'm going to sing the songs like it's my last time, because it will be.

#40 (aka: Latin music, not so much, but every now and then...)

From 7th-8th grade, I was really enamored with Enrique Iglesias (yup, laugh it up -- however, let it be known that it was his influence that encouraged me to buy my first pair of MENS' leather pants). While I don't listen to his music much anymore, there are just some days when I need a bit of Latin music to get - well - everything moving, and today is one of those days. So, I have submitted to "The Rhythm Divine" and "Bailamos". I don't know how I feel about it yet.

And yes, Enrique, I most certainly can "feel the rhythm burning". Does that finally answer your question?!

#39 (aka: Finally quoting)

A while ago, Peterson made a posting about the five quotes that were most inspiring to him (or something along those lines). He tagged me to do the same at the end of the post, and I've been so busy, I haven't had the time to sit down and do it. So, today's the day. Here are my picks for my favorite/most inspiring quotes:

- "The most beautiful people in the world, and the most powerful, are those people who are unashamed just to be themselves" -- Peterson, The Identity Monologue

- "The nature of gender? Isn't that an oxymoron?" -- Kate Bornstein, My Gender Workbook

- "Your heart is the heart of the world, brother." -- S.B.B.

- "When I dare to be powerful; to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." -- Audre Lorde

- "To reveal the merest facets of the self, particularly when they are hard to uncover and even harder to understand, is a wonder of existence." -- C.R.

I'm also not going to tag anybody. Anyone who wants to do this quotation assignment, may.

#38 (aka: BIG, GREAT, AMAAAAAZING NEWS!!!!!)

I'm now $1,000 closer to college!

My mom got a call from a woman who works for the greater Boston branch of PFLAG, and the woman asked her to tell me to call her. So I did. And.... I am one of only 5 recipients of the GBPFLAG Elsie Frank Scholarship!!!!!!!!!! I think this could rank as one of the best moments of my entire life.