Lois Bates 2010. Photo from aidschicago.org.

Lois Bates, a major presence in the transgender community as an advocate for transgender and HIV positive people, is no longer with us. This is a significant loss. Lois has been a supporter of GIFT from the very beginning and was a member of GIFT’s board.

I met Lois in June of 2006 and was struck by how calm and grounded she was; how she put others at ease. I enjoyed her wittiness and keen observations about what was going on around us and in the community at large. We had the chance to connect on two other occasions at conferences. While I didn’t know Lois well, there was comfort in knowing that she respected and supported what GIFT was working to accomplish. Lois supported her communities with creativity, passion, and compassion. We offer our condolences to Lois’ family, the communities she touched, and mourn her passing.

You can learn more about Lois at aidschicago.org and in this interview (pdf) done for The Journal of Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN).

Transfigurations by Jana Marcus

It has been a couple of months of ramping up our visibility in the Trans community and beyond for GIFT.  We started off August at the Gender Odyssey conference, enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones.  We enjoyed being at the launch of Transfigurations, Jana Marcus’ photo-documentry exhibit that is now a self-published book. Looking through its wonderful black and white photos and seeing so many of the men in the book at the conference was a treat. The men, captured in a moment in time between 2003-2006, that we saw 5 or more years later really provided perspective on how we grow and change and yet remain so much ourselves. Many of us have less hair, in some cases a lot less hair, and show other physical changes, but we still look like ourselves.  We are contributing to our comunities, supporting, serving and mentoring others on their journey of wholeness. At the Gender Odyssey conference, we saw a lot of positive visibility wherever we looked.

I met a new guy at the Gender Odyssey conference who blew me away with T=he Visible Man Project. We had a chance to share a meal, hang out and talk about community, family, education, food and what it means to be who we are.  Quoting from the T=he Visible Man Project web site, “he hopes to promote community service, community pride and positive esprit de corps.”  It is too easy to get dragged down by what is happening with the economy, our politics, and what the media reinforces. T=he Visible Man Project is a refreshing and positive change that I hope you’ll check out.  Let us and T=he Visible Man  Project know what inspires you in your community.

In September, we were given the opportunity to fundraise for GIFT by selling copies of Transfigurations as a vendor at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta. It allowed us to talk about what GIFT is doing, what our goals are, and how being at the Southern Comfort Conference fundraising with the book was contributing to our mission. In additoin to community members, we talked to therapists, physicians, and researchers,  hearing about what they are doing, and the challenges and rewards of working with the transgender community. A few of the women that I spoke to do peer support in their communities serving the full transgender spectrum. They felt that Transfigurations, was a great resource for the young folk, both for its images and its text.  The men who founded GIFT are represented in the book. As Transfigurations is launched, our goal of promoting positive visibility extends further into the world.

What is your take on visibility for and in the trans community? How does the current world economy influence your perspective?

This conference is where possibility became tangible for me back in 2004. At that time, the conference was called FTM 2004: A Gender Odyssey. It was September and wet. The workshops took place in four different venues in the Capital Hill neighborhood, which gave you a chance to breath the clean, rain-washed air between workshops. It was overwhelming, exhilarating, exhausting, and amazing. It was specifically geared towards FTMs and they were there in every shape and size and color. They were dressed up, dressed down, inked, clean-cut, shaggy, with partners, alone, looking for partners. Being there was a feast for the spirit and the heart.

I met many of the men who support, encourage and sustain me to this day. Men who showed me that my fledgling self would mature and out-grow the boyishness; that looking like a teenage boy did not require adolescent actions and thinking. And while the focus of the conference was on FTMs, men like me, it also provided workshops for partners and family members.

FTM 2004: A Gender Odyssey was my second conference for transgender people. Unlike my first conference, it fostered and encouraged amazing conversations that pushed me beyond my reservations and fears into sharing and community. These conversations were deep, dense, fulfilling. I wanted to share them with as many people as possible, to be part of creating conversations that were thoughtful, engaging, challenging, and supportive — that created community and belonging.

As Gender Odyssey celebrates 10-years of existence and creating communities that are broad in their representations of gender, I am proud to have been able to contribute to the conversations and to the communities that have formed. The seeds for GIFT were planted at Gender Odyssey and watered and nurtured through the friendships formed at the conference. Gender Odyssey continues to be fertile ground as it grows, supports and embraces transgender communities.

Come meet us this weekend if you’ll be in the area. I will be facilitating “Healing Touch: An Introduction to Queer Tango” and “Father Stories”. Logan Grimes will be facilitating “How Do You Measure Up” (POC-only) and participating in a Gender Odyssey Family conference panel.  Find out more at http://www.generodyssey.org/ and http://www.genderodysseyfamily.org/.

Lyle Blake, GIFT Co-Founder

Friday, May 6th, 2011, 9:30AM
Howard Brown Health Center, Community Room
4025 N. Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60613
more info