Time Marches On: Trans Edition

I was alerted to the passing of Jeri Hughes, by my friend Ethan St. Pierre. It comes a day after watching a video of a trans person referring to themselves as a trans elder when they transitioned in 2020. It’s made me reflect on how many of my fellow (actual) trans elders have died and how the community is less, because of it.

When I started the Transadvocate blog back in 2002, it was a response to the pain and loss I felt after coming out as transgender in 2001. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that action changed my life forever. It brought people into my life like Monica Roberts, Ethan St Pierre, Rebecca Juro, Christian Grantham, and many others that would impact the trajectory of my life, and the transgender community.

Many of those people get very little mention today. Every time I see the trans flag, I think of Monica Helms.

But scarcely any a peep is said of Helms these days. So much of the history of the movement, during my time in it, doesn’t see much light.

I didn’t realise it until recently, but Rusty Mae Moore died back in 2022. She and her partner, Chelsea Goodwin, created Transy House.

“Transy House was a transgender collective operated by Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Goodwin from 1995 to 2008.”

“It provided shelter for trans, gender variant, and non-binary people in need, served as a center for trans activism, and was the last residence of pioneering LGBT rights activist Sylvia Rivera.”

Any time I see a young trans person living their best life, I think of the work that we did back then to lay the foundation so that they could walk. It’s the best thing we ever did, and so many of them will never know we did it.

Time marches on.