Trans Leadership Summit, Trans Pride LA Draw Hundreds to Plummer Park

Los Angeles' Plummer Park is quickly becoming the hot spot for queer events for the summer!

After hosting the second annual Hollywood Youth Pride earlier in the month, the park followed it up with the sixth Transgender Leadership Summit on from Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 24. Trans Pride LA followed the summit with awards and entertainment on Saturday, July 23.

The Transgender Leadership Summit is a one-of-a-kind leadership conference that aims to build the foundation for trans people to advocate for their rights through attending workshops that cover legal, health care, organizational development and other topics.

"Creating a culture where it is both unpopular and rare for trans and other people who don't fit narrow gender stereotypes to be bullied, beaten or harassed will free all people to live their lives fully and authentically," said Masen Davis, executive director of The Transgender Law Center, before the gathering.

The summit was highly attended and offered a sliding scale fee based on income level and ability to pay. Workshops that focused on trans-specific legal issues-rates of discrimination and violence against trans and gender queer people remain disproportionately high-proved particularly popular. The Transgender Leadership Summit provided attendees with the tools to empower trans people to fight for equality.

After Saturday's panels, attendees took part in the inaugural Trans Pride L.A. and mixed and mingled with trans people and allies at a free buffet-style dinner. The event also featured live music and an awards ceremony honoring people who have positively impacted trans Angelenos.

Combined, both events brought in a total of 200-300 people.

"Trans people have been in LA forever-transpeople have been in the queer community forever," said riKu Matsuda, who co-hosted the evening with fellow activist Leslie Monroy.

"The thing is, trans people rarely get our own space to claim, to assert, to celebrate with our friends and loved ones! This event helps educate non-trans people about trans and gender queer people and it makes space for all gender non-conforming folks to just be."

One of the performers of the evening was Alex Davis, a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter who just completed a tour of his stage show, "Alex Davis: Man of the Year." As a prominent trans artist, Davis certainly understood the value of the weekend's events.

"Life can get very heavy when going against the grain, and I know I needed people when I started transitioning to act as successful examples for me, to show me how it's possible to be a happy person and deal with the problems you face no matter what," said Davis. "The activists who facilitated or were honored have made me personally feel more confident with my decision to transition. They helped me believe it would work out, that doing what I needed to do to be happy was worth the risk involved."

The first Trans Pride L.A. Community Award was presented to the Minority AIDS Project's Transgia Divas, a program that works with trans Latino and gender queer people in South Los Angeles.

"It would be awesome for Trans Pride LA to be attended by every trans and gender queer person in LA and beyond," said Matsuda. "My goal moving forward is to spread the word and do more outreach."

Log onto www.transgenderlawcenter.org for more information on Trans Pride or the Transgender Leadership Summit.