The Transgender Oral History Project is an initiative by and for the transgender community. TOHP collects interviews and produces multimedia content featuring stories of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

-identified people, and exists to empower trans folks through sharing stories of their lives. The Transgender Oral History Project is also active in the community, hosting events in many states including

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

, Seattle,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Goals

According to the official website, the Transgender Oral History Project's goals are to build community, encourage inter-generational discussion, framing contemporary issues that transgender people faced within a broader context, highlight individuals, communities, and organizations struggling with trans issues that are not addressed by mainstream discourses and portray how political, social, and historical circumstances impact transgender lives.

Founding

The Trans Oral History project was founded in 2009 by André Pérez and began with documenting the evolution of the first ever New England Transgender Pride March. He went on to create a multimedia exhibit entitled, "Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle" that incorporated archival materials from the Sexual Minorities Archives and the first set of interviews from the Transgender Oral History Project. This exhibit has been featured at Marlboro College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Translating Identities Conference.

Notable Past Projects

In 2010, a poster describing the Compton's Cafeteria riot was featured in the anthology
Celebrate People's History
published by the Just Seeds Collective. In 2011, the Trans Oral History Project participated in a two-month residency at the University of Illinois, Chicago's LGBTQ Resource Center. TOHP collective members lead a participatory workshop series and created a multimedia exhibition featuring interview materials. In 2014
I Live for Trans Education: A Youth Toolkit
officially launched. I Live featured mini documentaries paired with interactive activities to teach about issues that impact the transgender community. The toolkit is a resource for trans educators, youth workers, and youth leaders to educate about issues that impact the trans community from an intersectional perspective. TOHP also began partnering with

StoryCorps StoryCorps is an American non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. StoryCorps grew out of Sound Portraits Productions as a project founded in 2003 by radio ...

, the largest oral history project in North America, to record and preserve stories. A TOHP interview was featured on WBEZ in Chicago. The Trans Oral History Project now serves as a community archive for StoryCorps' recordings with transgender individuals, and is in the process of integrating those interviews into their publicly accessible digital archive of transgender stories.

Community Events

Members of the Trans History Collective have also led educational workshops in community settings, academic institutions, and national conferences. The Transgender Oral History Project collaborates with other organizations in the area to host regular skills shares that teach media production skills to trans* and

gender variant Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...

people. Some of the events the Transgender Oral History Project has hosted are: * Soapbox: A Wordpress Skill Share Chicago, IL (2012) * Transtastic: Transgender Narratives through Web Comics Chicago, IL (2012) * Movement Building and Breaking: An Interactive Trans History at the History Center of Tompkins County in Ithaca, NY (2012) * Trans and Allied Community Story Share at the Philadelphia Folklore Project (2012) * Trans History Residency at University of Illinois Chicago in Chicago, IL (2011) * Trans and Gender Variant Inter-generational Story Share at the Allied Media Conference (2010) * Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle at Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT (2009) * Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle at Translating Identities Conference in Burlington, VT (2009)

References

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External links