Awareness is a crucial component of the battle for transgender rights for mechanic Jai Santora.
Santora said she was concerned about keeping her connections when she first emerged as a transgender woman. She had long been a member of society organizations where the majority of the people had never met a trans man before and frequently made disparaging remarks about gay people.
Santora, who appeared in Worcester Magazine’s Last Call meeting set in March 2023, said, “I came out knowing these parties, scared of what was going to happen to me.”
Santora added, “As I’ve managed to continue showing off and being myself in these places, I know there are discussions being had about me, and I know those meetings have flipped from, ‘this is strange, she’s one of those’ to ‘oh, that’s Jai, we had a great time the next time we hung out.'”
With live music, poetry, a DJ, and meals, Gambrino’s Cask & Barrel will open its doors on April 6 to mark the global Transgender Day of Visibility. Santora hopes this event will bring Worcester’s trans group together and highlight the contributions trans people make to the city.
According to Santora, the event is meant to highlight and celebrate the diversity, beauty, and wonders of the trans community. “So often, you hear about trans people in the media, and it’s tragic stories of discrimination and abuse, and unfortunately, so often, loss of life, but this is a day to show that there’s so many more of us than a lot of people imagine.”
Santora’s business, Santora Automotives in Oxford, is co-sponsoring the event, along with Boston trans rights activist Chastity Bowick’s Consulting and Talent Group, local realtor Alice Romeo’s real estate business, and the YWCA of Central Massachusetts.
Standing up, speaking out
Organizer Levi Ekstrom recalled beginning his transition while he was a student at Westfield State University, which he claimed was difficult in part because other students on campus were unaware of transgender people.
Being a trans student on campus caused some people to be frustrated, whether it was because the software couldn’t upload their preferred names or because other students were being discriminated against, Ekstrom said. The visibility that I worked to change was what I was experiencing, according to the author. Many students stepped up and said these things were having an impact on campus, and that required a lot of them to do that.
On March 31, Santora and other organizers announced that the annual international Transgender Day of Visibility would take place in Worcester because some residents would be busy celebrating Easter Sunday on March 31.
The first Transgender Day of Visibility, a vigil for transgender homicide victims that takes place on November 20, was organized by Michigan’s Rachel Crandall-Crocker as a positive follow-up to the transgender homicide victims’ annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
According to Crandall-Crocker, it’s equally important to pay tribute to those victims, who frequently appear in obituaries and police reports with incorrect genders. It’s important to honor the bravery it can take to be openly transgender in sometimes hostile environments, according to Crocker.
“I wanted a day that we can celebrate the living, and I wanted a day that all over the world, we could be together,” Crandall-Crocker told “PBS News Hour” in 2021.
Ekstrom said he and other organizers knew they wanted to put together events for both days because he was on the planning committee for Worcester’s Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil in November.
“As soon as that group of people got together, it was immediately, ‘Since we’re doing Trans Day of Remembrance, let’s also get back together to talk about Trans Day of Visibility,'” Ekstrom said. “We really want to use it as a gathering place, and we want people to be enthralled with their neighborhood.
Parents as advocates
In order to foster a community where transgender teenagers and preteens can meet and become friends, the gathering will take place during the day and feature live music and poetry appropriate for all ages.
“So often, kids go to school and get bullied and end up coming home just to find that they’re bullied again,” Santora said. Parents of queer children should bring them so they can discover their own neighborhood and spaces and discover that they won’t just be targeted wherever they go.
Ekstrom expressed his hope that transgender people in the Worcester area will be able to find support and lessen their concerns about discrimination as a result of events like Transgender Day of Visibility.
According to Ekstrom, “I’ve attended some support groups, and I’ve heard from some of the older trans women who claim to be unable to even change a tire on the side of the road without getting awful derogatory comments from people on the street.” “I just hope for those moments (of safety) that a cis straight person would never have to think about.”
The Trans Day of Awareness celebration takes place at 3 p.m. on April 6 at Gambrino’s Cask & Barrel, 266 Park Ave. in Worcester. Admission is free. To learn more, visit the Facebook page.
