Growing Up Black & Trans in the Berkshires
When I look back at my life as a Black trans woman living in the Berkshires, the first three words that come to mind are growth, change, and resilience. We have come a long way in just my lifetime. I didn’ t meet my first trans person until I went away for college. When I was growing up, you wouldn’ t have been able to find someone like me in the popular media and culture. It certainly has not been easy, but it has been a journey. In 2012, when I was preparing to leave the relative safety of my college campus and return to our gentle evergreen hills, I was wracked with nerves. While away at school, I’ d come to discover a truth about myself; that I was transgender. I was deathly afraid that, if I returned home, I’ d have to lose that vital part of myself. That path is a road
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littered with bodies; a path that would have claimed me if I’ d gone down it.
I had some life-saving chats with a few friends, and they gave me a piece of advice that I’ ve used to guide me:“ If you want to see change happen, then be that change.”
Since then, I promised myself I would live unapologetically as my authentic self and do my best to be the person I wish I’ d seen when I was growing up. I have been finding a lot of other people who have those same principles, who were trying to make the queer community of the Berkshires more visible. This is how, in 2016, I met Jason Vivori, board chair of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition( BSCC), the oldest LGBTQ + nonprofit in the Berkshires.
Berkshire Stonewall was officially founded in 1997 but began a few years earlier in the mid-1990s as a group of local activists whose mission was to be able to react cooperatively to negative events impacting the LGBTQ + community. BSCC recognized the need for positive and fun events for the
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70 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE May / June 2023