Yesterday at the Center went fairly well! For me, it was absolutely and utterly enjoyable!

I am really glad that Lilly suggested that we do a “trail run” by having TATS/STAG at the TG Center on Saturday. Here is what we all learned:

“Good”:

1.) Everyone without exception loved the Center. They were absolutely blown away and it inspired an incredible amount of pride about our own community.

2.) People are able to flow throughout the house without an problems.

3.) People seemed to be able to park without any major issues. I didn’t hear anyone complain that, like the old HACS Center or old GLBT Center, you have to park on the street.

4.) People are very much willing to volunteer and get behind something like this.

5.) People seem to really, really appreciate getting to connect to their history.

“Bad”:

1.) The upstairs meeting room comfort: We need to have the AC kicked up a notch and we need to add curtains/rugs to absorb some of the echo effect.

Without the trial run, we would not have been able to catch the “bad” until after the Center opened.

I loved how people mixed and found quiet nooks to talk. I loved it when I walked into the library area to find some folks sitting there enjoying the archive.

Photos:

Welcome cake for TATS

Beautiful housewarming gift from Lilly Roddy

STAG members cutting their welcome cake

TATS & STAG members discussing TG archival material

Video:

As I was shutting down the Center, I checked that mail and found a lovely surprise! Aya Kamikawa, the first transgender to hold public office in Japan, decided that she wanted to add her political documents to the TG archive. The TG Center hasn’t even opened and we already have transgenders of historical significance contributing to the TG Center’s archive from around the globe!

Aya Kamikawa’s political material

Aya Kamikawa’s business card and a signed copy of her biography

I was so absolutely pleased with how everything turned out!

Afterwards, I headed over to Vanity’s pool party for a bit. Her party was really happening!

I confirmed a speaker for the TG DOR. This was an absolutely generous thing this transwoman is doing for the community. Not too long ago, some anti-trans thugs pulled her out of her window, smashed her kneecap, and then proceeded to beat her literally… almost to death. As a bonus, they sodomized her after they were done beating her and breaking her bones. I am so honored and so incredibly humbled that, after thinking about this for a month, she would agree to tell her story at DOR.

Also, I met someone at Vanity’s party that just flipped me out! There is someone within the City of Houston who oversees the billing for contractors. Everyone is a bit wary of him because he could make life really painful for some of these contractors (like HACS, Legacy, etc). Well, up walked this beautiful blond and I start talking to her. I asked her name, she told me and said that I already knew her. At that point she told me that she was the above City billing person, I was literally bowled over by gender dysphoria! It was a delightfully wonderful incident to experience. We both had a long laugh and it felt good to discover that we shared such a significant commonality!

Around 11:00, I decided to head back home since I had gotten up at 6.

When I got back home I got a call from my grandmother. Since I’d never before gotten a call from my grandmother at 11:30 at night, I was immediately very concerned. As it turned out, she was suffering from insomnia, but needed me to run to Pasadena today to buy her some of her prescriptions. She also asked me to take her to her doctor on Tuesday because the doctor wants her to come to “talk” – which doesn’t sound very good since she just went to her cardiologist. I tend to think good news is given over the phone while bad news requires folks to come in. So, I’m feeling some trepidation about all of that.

Also, I feel as if I have a ton lifted off my shoulders after last Thursday. It feels so good to be out from under all the funkiness that went on behind the scenes at HACS. Actually, I am half-way expecting that they will need to pull one more horror movie cliché “gotcha” before all of this is over and done with. My hope in letting them keep all of my pay from the next paycheck is that it will fulfill their needs to “hurt” me and they will move on… but, I am kinda expecting one more zinger. Even so, I feel so completely free of all of that internal dysfunction. There is absolutely nothing they can do to affect my life or the TG Center. Resting in this knowledge helps me to understand that the only negative power they could have would be to do things to try to inspire me to become upset – and that requires my own cooperation to accomplish that!