Our Founding
In 2007, founder André Pérez took time off from college to sort out his own transition and family issues. The 19-year-old began assisting on a documentary film about the first-ever New England Transgender Pride March. Struck by how older activists’ stories resonated with contemporary issues (i.e., political tensions between trans and LGB communities, evolving identity terms, controversies over POC-only space, resource equity, etc.), he craved more opportunities for deep conversations. Pérez approached Northhampton Community Television station for a work trade to access free video equipment. He spent the summer learning to film, interview, and light while interviewing Ben Powers, Dru Levassuer, and Louis Mitchell.
Timeline of Achievements
May 20071st Interview
Pérez conducts the first TOHP interview with Ben Powers, the curator of the Sexual Minorities Archive, in Western MA and it lasted 3 hours.
May 2008Debut Exhibitions
Pérez debuts Community in Transition as the culmination of his undergrad thesis at Marlboro College. The exhibition consists of four rooms, each representing a decade (1970-2009), with a curated collection of original interviews, film clips, zines, and archival materials borrowed from the Sexual Minorities Archives on display in an interactive, period-specific living room. A suite of public programming tackles topics such as how ACTUP shaped modern trans movements, the feminist roots of trans theory, and ephemera as historical documentation.The Translating Identities Conference invites Community in Transition for an encore exhibition at the largest trans conference in the region. Learn more.
June 2011Chicago Video Bootcamp
A weekend-long intensive kicks off TOHP’s media production programming to help trans people learn video production skills.
September 2012Northeast Tour
Pérez and Chase hit the road for the first TOHP tour. They recreate Community in Transition at the History Center of Tompkins County, lead programming at Ithica College, and team up with Sasha Alexander in New York City to capture stories from a legendary ball family.
March 2013Trans 100 Honors Founder
The Trans 100 launches to honor the contributions of trans community activists. Pérez earns an award as part of the inagural class.
April 2013Iowa University Exhibition
The Digital Center for Public Humanities at Iowa University invites TOHP to host a weekend of programming for our five year retrospective.
March 2014Interview with Laverne Cox
Pérez and Sandi get the oportunity to briefly interview Laverne Cox at the Trans 100.
April 2014We Publish I Live for Trans Education
I Live for Trans Education is a multimedia toolkit comprising short docs and a grassroots social justice curriculum developed by and for trans youth. TOHP partnered with the IL Safe Schools Alliance, Youth Empowerment through Performance Project, Lambda Legal, United Latino Pride, and the Read/Write Library during the production process to enable collaboration between homeless youth, high school GSA leaders, therapists, teachers, and community advocates. Karari Olvera translated I Live into ipanish and spearheaded Spanish outreach. Ultimately, we shared the completed project with 1,500 people through train-the-trainer sessions and intergenerational workshops at Creating Change, United Latino Pride, the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference, and the Allied Media Conference, amoers. Learn more.
Winter 2014Partnering with Storycorps
TOHP is amoung the first partnerships with Storycorps OutLoud. We record and preserve 50 stories of Chicago-based activists that are preserved in the Libarary of Congress, Smithsonian African American Museum of Culture and History, and the Unversity of Texas at Austin’s collection of Latino Cultural Artifacts.
SEPTEMBER 2015Making Chances Exhibition
Chances Dances sunsets after a decade of hosting an iconic dance party in Chicago. The group started a grant in commemoration of a trans organizer who had died by suicide. TOHP was amoung the first awardees and our work is highlighted in Making Chances: A Retrospective, a show by Chances Dances highlighting awardees at the Gallery 400 at University of Illinois Chicago.
June 2016TOHP Chapters Converge at the Allied Media Conference
Attending and presenting at the Allied Media Conference was an integral part of TOHP’s inspiration and evolution for a decade. Over the years, TOHP presented at 7 conferences. This year, TOHP North East helps host the Groundswell Oral History Convening, while TOHP Chicago pitches a new film project, America in Transition. The group stays in Detroit for its first in-person national retreat.
Fall 2016 - FALL 2017America in Transition Films in Arkansas, Wisconsin, and North Carolina
Several TOHP representatives sit on the Community Advisory Board of AIT and help decide which issues to focus on – HIV criminalization, immigration, trans rights in the South, and Black Trans visibiilty. Amidst the Trump presidency, AIT shoots in many conservative regions to highlight local BIPOC activists on the frontlines. Learn more.
February 2017410 Contributors Fund Our Kickstarter!
Our community showed up for us, and told us how much our work meant to them by donating $17,000 to finance America in Transition’s post-production.
Winter 2016 America in Transition Forms a Community Advisory Board
We recruit an advisory board of long-stime TOHP members and BIPOC activists we admire who represent the Trans Latina Coalition, Black Trans Man Inc, United Latino Pride, GLSEN, and more.
March 2019#GettingOurRoses on the Road for Trans Liberation!
As HB2 escalates in North Carolina, a deluge of requests for AIT screenings flood in. We decide to host a screening tour that partners with local activists to mobilze thier communities. We met a lot of amazing people, started conversations about trans rights, and met with community partners in Charlotte, NC; Greensboro, NC; Charlottesville, VA; Arlington, VA; Swarthmore, PN; and Philadelphia, PN.
SPRING 2018South Speaks Out Tour
After 85+ workshops, screenings, and public events, America in Transition spends 4 mounths planning it’s final Trans Day of Visibility tour. The tour would have four regional legs conducted by six AIT speakers taking place between March 15, 2020 - April 15, 2020. COVID breaks out and colleges and public events screech to a hault. Some events happen virtually while other events are cancelled and delayed indefinitely.
SUMMER 2019Trans Visibility Tour Interupted by COVID-19
After 85+ workshops, screenings, and public events, America in Transition spends 4 mounths planning it’s final Trans Day of Visibility tour. The tour would have four regional legs conducted by six AIT speakers taking place between March 15, 2020 - April 15, 2020. COVID breaks out and colleges and public events screech to a hault. Some events happen virtually while other events are cancelled and delayed indefinitely.
Summer 2020AIT holds its 100th Community Engagement Event
TOHP screens America in Transition for an Honoring Intersectionality in Our Work workshop at Exposures Labs, a preeminent Documentary social impact firm.
October 2016Sundance & Arcus Support America in Transition
TOHP’s most ambitious project yet, America in Transition (AIT) is a documentary series exploring relationships, community, and social issues with BIPOC trans folks. Arcus funds pre-production and Sundance invites us to pitch the project to recruit support (image right features Producer, Lesley Martinez with Director, André Pérez at Sundance 2017).
Jan 2017Doc Society’s Queer Impact Producers Lab
Pérez is invited on behlaf of TOHP and America in Transition to the inagural lab to strategize about how LGBTQ+ documentary films can create social change in the US and abroad.
July 2017Docs in Progress Residency
We get a residency from Docs in Progress, where we get input from iconic filmmakers including the creators of Rural Queer Bar. We get VIP passes to the American Film Insittute’s Festival and partner with Gallaudet University, nation’s only deaf university for a fully accessible event.
NOv 2017Back to the Future: A Trans Retrospective in Film
GenderReel pairs an AIT community screening with Outlaw (1991) and Queens at Heart (1967). Over 100 trans Seattleites join us for a facilitated discussion about the importance of trans imagery in film and how it’s evolved over the past 50 years.
Oct 2017America in Transition Short Featured at NewFest in NYC
TOHP screened a short at AIT’s first festival, NewFest in NYC.
2018AIT Launches Community Engagement Campaign
Motivated by escalating attacks on trans people in the South, we work with AIT staff and the CAB to design a community engagement campaign that instigates conversations in conservative areas, networks isolated trans people, and centers BIPOC voices. By drawing on a robust network of volunteers and collaborators, we host 100 public events in partnership with 65+ organizations ranging from cultural centers and universities and art festivals and community organizations.
Summer 20091st Collaborator!
After meeting one another in Amherst, MA, Helyx Chase and André Pérez join forces. A skilled editor interested in public exhibitions, Chase becomes an anchoring member who help grow the organization for almost a decade.
November 2010Publishing with People’s History
Celebrate People's History!: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution features a poster created by Pérez to commemorate the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (image to right: cropped portion of the poster).
Summer 2010TOHP Chicago is Born
Pérez moves to Chicago and recruits local collaborators to form TOHP Chicago with a charter mandating it remain a majority POC collective (image below from the TOHP first TOHP Chicago Strategic Planning Retreat featuring Matthew Clark, Andre Perez, Alex Martinez, and E Armana).
October 2011UIC Residency: Trans History Resides Here
During this two-month residency, we created a multimedia exhibition on display in the UIC Gender and Sexuality Center accompanied by local historical artifacts, panel presentations by local activists, and four community engagement events that invited participants to record and share one another’s stories with the archives. Learn more.
October 2012Intergenerational Mixers
TOHP kicked off a social event series to build bridges between trans youth and elders. Co-hosted by the Be-All Conference, Genderworks, and Genderqueer Chicago, the mixers featured speed-friending and curated live storytelling in the style of the Moth.
January 2013Post-Apocalyptic Survival Calendar
We made a calendar marking anniversaries of trans historical events and showcasing trans artists from around the US. Amoug those featured were Madsen Minax, Youth Empowerment through Performance Project, Lark Mulligan, and Franklin Toan (images below).
June 2013Finding Your Story Kick-off Event
We kicked off a monthly series of trans artist skillshares with Transtatic: Expressing Trans Narratives through Web Comics. In partnership with Soy Quien Somos, the workshop was our first bilingual offering, and it took place in a historically Mexican neighborhood. Van Binfa led participants in hands-on exercises to create autobiographical comics. Future Finding Your Story events include zine-making for newbies, blogging as memoir, etc.
March 2014Chicago Video Production Bootcamp #2
The TOHP Chicago recruits trans youth for an weekend long documentary video production intensive covering filming, lighting, and editing over 16 hours of learning time (Image below: Alexis Martinez, Trian, and Pérez).
May 2014Trans Youth Convergece
TOHP partners with IL Safe Schools Alliance to co-host a summit for over 200 high school activists. Collective members host simultaneous train-the-trainer sessions and launch a national online network.
January 2015We Live Exhibition
This month-long exhibit at the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia featured documentary shorts and an interactive timeline. Funded by the Leeway Foundation, we hosted public events inviting dialogue, archival community contributions, and video submissions from local activists (Image left: Original flyer from the event. Image right: TOHP North East Chapter planning meeting).
JULY 2015Defiant Archives Exhibition
Developed by five members of TOHP’s North East Collective, Defiant Archives: Trans Histories of Existence, Resistance, and Brilliance showcased the history of trans activism in Philadelphia. Debuting as part of a broader celebrations of the anniversary of the Dewey Lunch Counter Riots, this exhibit showcased a collection of archival and personal items collected and curated by the local community. Over 100 Visitors watched clips from TOHP interviews with influential activists and a short doc Transpass. After exhibiting at the William Way LGBT Center (July-September 2015), Defiant Archives moved to Philadelphia City Hall, outside the Mayor’s Office (October-December 2015). Learn more.