Juneteenth ‘American Problems, Trans Solutions’ Screening Event

Enjoy highlights from TransLash’s Juneteenth screening event for “American Problems, Trans Solutions,” which premieres on PBS World on June 24, 2024.

By Daniela “Dani” Capistrano, with additional reporting by Cobbie Cobb and Oliver Whitney

On June 19, 2024, Team TransLash hosted a Juneteenth event with WNYC at The Greene Space in New York, NY, featuring a screening of American Problems, Trans Solutions, which will have its broadcast premiere on PBS World on 6/24 at 9/8c.

Watch the replay below and access the full transcript. If you’re still looking for more behind-the-scenes content, we’ve included some cute snaps further down in this recap! 

About ‘American Problems, Trans Solutions’

In American Problems, Trans Solutions, Imara Jones travels across the country to meet and share the stories of leaders on the frontlines of change: housing advocate Kayla Gore; Breonna McCree, a champion for economic empowerment; and Oluchi Omeoga, who fights for the rights of migrants. 

Despite the record-breaking number of anti-trans bills passed in 2023, these three Black trans people are addressing critical issues surrounding economic empowerment and human dignity with heart and vision. 

Access the transcript from our Juneteenth event below.

Opening Remarks: Transcript

Jennifer Keeney Sendrow, Executive Producer, The Greene Space + Multiplatform Content:

Hello. Welcome to The Green Space. How many of you’re here for the first time ever? Wow. Almost everybody. How awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here tonight and spending this beautiful holiday evening with us. Also, Happy pride. How are you all doing?

I feel like you’re already in screening mode. We’re gonna get there in just a moment.

So are any of you members of WNYC or WQXR? A few. Okay, great. So just wanna let you know that The Greene Space, what we do here is connected to New York Public Radio. So when you listen to WNYC or WQXR, or you read Gothamist, that’s all us.

So everything that we do is supported by members, by the public or publicly funded. So appreciate your support and tune in. Come back. That’s my big ask of you. Please do come back, especially if you’re here for the first time. My small ask of you is, could you silence your phones if you haven’t already done that? Just so it doesn’t disrupt the talk back or the screening.

Now I’m very honored to finally have this collaboration with TransLash happening in The Greene Space, because some of you might know that we in 2020 did an entire year of monthly digital events with TransLash when Imara Jones was our Journalist-In-Residence here, our first and so far only Journalist-In-Residence here in The Greene Space.

So having her here in person finally on our stage is really, really awesome…So I’m really honored to be able to introduce her: she’s an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning creator of TransLash Media, named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2023.

And her groundbreaking work in journalism and narrative has profoundly shifted the cultural landscape for transgender individuals in the U.S.

So please join me in welcoming a true trailblazer and advocate for equality, Imara Jones.

Imara Jones:

First of all, I just wanted to let you all know that of course tonight we are encouraging you to get the word out on social media about this event. So this is the hashtag that you should use. It’s long, but it also captures the name of the show. So make sure that you use that in everything that you do.

I also have a bit of housekeeping that I have to do at every single event or else I get reprimanded by our social media team, and that is to encourage everyone to sign up for our TransLash Newsletter. So if you go TransLash.org, it’s pretty easy to figure it out.

Sign up for our newsletter. It really is worth your time. Once a week you’ll see all the things that we have going on at TransLash, but more importantly, it’s a great way to stay informed about the trans community, including anti-trans legislation. So make sure that you go do that.

Okay, now I’ve done my homework. I can start talking about the things I wanna talk about. 

Today is Juneteenth (read our guide here). And one of the most important things about Juneteenth, and the reason why it’s a celebration, is because it marks the time when the last enslaved people of African descent in the United States learned that they were free. 

We don’t celebrate the first day that enslaved Africans were free. We don’t celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation. 

We celebrate the last day that enslaved people were free.

And the reason why that is, is a very simple notion and a very real thing and a deep understanding that enslaved people know and understood, which is that no one is free until everybody is free.

That’s right. There’s no such thing as freedom for part of us. There has to be freedom for everybody.

And what I think is so powerful about the three stories that you all are going to

hear tonight is that Kayla and Breonna and Oluchi live that principle of Juneteenth every single day of their lives.

They have devoted themselves and continue to devote themselves to that simple understanding that until the most marginalized people are able to be free, no one is free.

And so it is fitting that we are doing this screening tonight with them centering their stories on Juneteenth.

So let’s just give them a round of applause even before we see it.

It is fitting that this event is here because as Jen said, we wanted to be doing this once a month for over a year and we had grand plans to do so. But then the pandemic arrived and changed all of our plans, but in so many ways opened up so many powerful conversations that we wouldn’t have been able to have people if we had only centered #LivesAtStake here in New York.

There are certain people in the room who were in #LivesAtStake, but we were able to include people like Cecilia, who is no longer with us, she was also a part of that.

And Elisa Crespo when she was running for City Council and so many other voices. And so I’m glad that we can finally, you know, come back full circle and be here together in this space.

For those of you all who don’t know, TransLash is a narrative change organization where we use the power of journalism and nonfiction storytelling to center the humanity of trans people.

Understanding that the violence against our community in all of its forms, the ways in which people are targeting us, comes down to the fact that people don’t see us as human.

And so we want to correct that as an organization and we try to do that in as many ways as possible.

We do so through written articles and we do that through films such as the one you’re going to see tonight.

We do so through zines and we do so through not one, but now three podcasts.

It started essentially in similar ways that you’re going to see tonight, where in 2018 I was encouraged by some of my colleagues who are journalists to tell my story about what it was like to be trans during the Trump era. Kind of the first wave of, you know, being targeted.

And the first thing that I said was, no one’s gonna care about that. And when I heard myself say those words, I immediately knew two things. I knew that one, that wasn’t what I actually believed because I had spent my entire life understanding the power of story and its ability to change and to motivate.

And secondly, I knew that if that was an unheard thought that I had in myself, that there were others who thought the same thing.

And if that were the case, that was the predicate for us to be harmed.

And so I called in a favor from a friend of mine who worked on reality television in Atlanta. And we essentially traveled the country  for a year doing the first docuseries for TransLash, which remains among some of our most watched videos, even as they are six years old.

But what eventually started with no money and a called in favor, I mean even the first logo was a bootleg design that he called in a favor from his friend who owed him a favor.

The whole thing has now grown into a team of people across the country who helped to produce the award-winning content that you all see all the time. And many of those team members are here and you should get to know them. If you’re a TransLash team member. or have you ever worked with Trans Lash, just raise your hand in some way. 

See there are a lot of, and you know, these are a smattering of some of the awards that we’ve gotten. And maybe after tonight and af0ter this film comes out next week, there’ll be some more. We’ll add to the list. Yeah, thank you, you can clap for those awards.

But a great way to learn about all of the things that TransLash is doing is in our brand new as of today website, which launched, which not only is an easy way for you to be able to see our array of content, but we also launched a new trans legislation dashboard, which makes it really easy for non-experts to see what’s going on with anti-trans legislation, what’s going on in your state.

And we did that in partnership with the Trans Legislation Tracker. So we’re thrilled to be able to do that. So there’s lots of content, lots of capabilities. So make sure you go to TransLash.org as of today to see our new website, but just not right now, here. Later on. Don’t get distracted to see all of the things that we are doing.

So that then brings us to how we are all here tonight. And essentially what happened is that during the George Floyd uprising in 2020, Time Magazine wanted to do an entire issue, which was devoted to reimagining America, right?

What would a new American Revolution look like? And my name is one of those names on the cover who was asked to reimagine what that looks like.

I wrote a piece about the vision and the power of Black trans people and the necessity of centering Black trans visions in a new America. That there was essentially no way for us to reimagine society without the contributions of Black trans people.

Because when you live in a society that’s not working for you, that makes you the perfect person to reimagine what that society would look like.

And that if you could redesign that society to work for the people that it’s not functioning for, that means you could build a society that works for everyone, right?

It removes us from a zero sum conversation and expands the idea of what’s possible.

Now for the next three years, people would ask me in various places, “what do you think is the most underreported story with trans people?” And I would always say, I think it is the leadership and the vision of Black trans people working to transform their communities one at a time.

And I would say it in so many times, in many ways because I had the hope that someone else was going to do the story.

You know, as a journalist, I don’t always feel like I have to tell every single story. It’s great if other people pick up these stories and tell them and see them at other places.

So I said it on NPR, not once, but twice. I said it on the PBS News Hour, I said it on MSNBC, I said it a bunch. 

And I kept thinking that some enterprising journalists, ’cause journalists are always looking for new stories to cover. we’re going to like dig deep and find the leaders that I was referencing and do an amazing story.

But at some point I realized that that wasn’t gonna happen. And it was a story that I believed was essential to be told.

And so once I get certain ideas in my head. I am annoying and I don’t stop. And so I didn’t stop.

So I got this idea and I went first to a bunch of people that I knew finally had a, a good meeting at the WNET Group. And you know, like all these meetings when you go in and pitch something, the first meeting is Aha. Yeah, okay. You know, like, but I kept going back and kept going back and finally they said, all right, well the only way to stop you from being annoying is to say that we’ll work with you on it.

And we did and then worked really hard to find stories that we thought were emblematic of this particular phenomenon. And that’s how logically we landed on these three people’s stories, who are you going to hear tonight.

And then we went out and found the right partners to be able to work with us to produce that: Naz, and then Tiler,  whose names you will see in the credits and who deserves so much of the credit for realizing this particular vision.

And then we set out across the country to make this film, you know, being trailed by a camera and asking people to tell their stories. So that’s why we are here tonight.

And what we are going to do is to listen to the really powerful visions of these three people that if our country actually adopted, if they were taking taken to scale would, be transformative.

And so, without further ado, I want to show you for the very first time in the world, American Problems, Trans Solutions: focusing on Kayla Gore, Breonna McCree, and Oluchi Omeoga

So as they get settled, I wanted to do two things, which is to first welcome everyone who is joining us on the livestream for The Greene Space and also on TransLash’s YouTube page.

You all were not able to see the film, but you will be able to see it on June 24th. So next week at 9:00 PM Eastern. But check your local listing as they say, because it’ll change.

It is being broadcast through our broadcast partner, PBS World, who this would not be possible without them opening and providing millions of viewers to us.

And so actually the head of PBS World is in the audience, Chris Hastings. So I just wanted to thank Chris. Chris came down from Boston. But anytime anyone from Boston comes from New York, you know they’re willing to do it. Sorry, Boston. Sorry Boston.

And secondly, I just wanted to let you all know that as well, each of you has a copy of the TransLash Zine on your seats that just came out today. It’s our latest zine and it’s uplifting, again, the voices and the stories of Black trans people, specifically Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.

Everyone online, you can go online to TransLash.org/zines and you can actually read it online. So, you’re not being excluded by not being here for that.

Thank you all so much.

Talk Back Q&A: Transcript

Imara Jones:

I want to know what it is like for you all to see yourselves up there. ’cause I don’t know how you feel, but mostly my days are, you know, answering emails and having to return calls and I’m running late and I’m in the drudgery of the work. I shouldn’t say drudgery, but I’m in the details of the work. Is it drudgery? Okay. 

I’m in the details. Okay. It is, it is. It’s another, be real, my Slack messages are pinging and I’m annoyed. So like that’s where I am mostly.

I’m not thinking about all the things that we’re doing.

But you know, I’m wondering if taking a step back how you all see yourselves, and your work…

Breonna McCree:

First, I can say for me, first, I just wanna say thank you. Can we give it up to Imara Jones for putting this together? For bringing us all together? Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. 

I would say for me, stepping back from the depths of the work and watching it, invigorates me to continue to do this work. I remember calling you just about a week ago saying, I’m tired of this. I’m done with this wor. I’m through with these people. but watching this gives, oh, this is what I do.

Because in the work, you lose exactly what you do because you’re just in the bowels of it. But to see it and reimagine, oh this is what I do, okay, yes, I’m gonna continue to do this.

So thank you for that. 

Oluchi Omeoga:

Yeah, I feel really similarly. I…a transparent moment: I hate watching myself on TV. This is the first time I’ve ever seen that. I like made it a point ’cause I was like, I do not like seeing myself.

But I’m also very grateful for like, just seeing all of the things, not only that I’ve done, but my comrades on the stage have also done, right.

I’ve been working with Kayla [Gore] for like six years now, and like I know about My Sista’s House, and like I know the impact that they’ve had. But just like watching it, I’m like, damn, she’s really putting in that work. So I don’t know if I can swear on PBS. Dang.

But like actually putting in that work and just like the brilliance of like Black trans leadership. Like I know it theoretically, but to see it is something that we’re not really shown, which is like another reason why I’m so grateful, these three are of hundreds of people, right? There are Black trans leaders in this room that I know do amazing work.

That’s right. But we’re not visible, as in the ways that we should be. So yeah, feeling surreal but also very humbled right now. Just like, yeah.

Kayla Gore:

In short, just everything that these two wonderful people said. But it also is a moment for me just to like, really to celebrate. It’s celebratory when we get to join in spaces like this.

I have come all the way from Memphis, Tennessee to New York City and like the red carpet has been laid out because of the work that you’ve done. Yeah. Which is not something  that Black trans people from the South really get to experience.

So being able to see us on the big screen is amazing.

And then the impact stories that you got from our residents, like we don’t do a lot of the that. Mm. So hearing it for the first time from a resident is like, it’s like music to my ears. Like we’re, we’re really getting it right. So, yeah.

Imara Jones:

I mean, I say all the time, first of all Oluchi,  you’re like, you’re saying that you’re like, you know, experiencing humility. I don’t say I can be humble in this outfit. Like, have you all seen this?

Oluchi Omeoga:

Every, everyone on stage got the memo but Kayla, it was supposed to be hues of red.

But you know, we can Photoshop something. 

Imara Jones:

I mean Kayla and, and Breonna like that makes sense to me. You know what I mean? Like, they’re always gonna do this, but I’ve never seen you like this. I have. You have? Yes.

Oluchi Omeoga:

I’m a Leo, so I’m always on 10. Okay. With the Libra rising. So the aesthetics are important.

Imara Jones:

Okay. Good to know. Good to know. 

Breonna McCree:

He left a part of it in the audio.

Imara Jones:

You know, one of the things that happens with stories, is that the stories that we tell actually are one of the ways that we signify who matters in the country.

Right? Like the stories that get told are the ones that we think are important, right? We always hear about George Washington. We never hear about the people that he enslaved or the people in the Continental Army who he betrayed, right? Who were Black and promised all sorts of things.

So, you know, there’s, the stories that we tell shape what we say is important. And one of the things that can happen is skepticism. Like when someone comes to your door and is like, “Hey, I wanna tell your story,” right?  

Even if they’re Black and trans, you’ll be like, “well what are you gonna say?” What are you gonna do?”

And I’m wondering like, what led you to say I’m going to go with this, I’m going to trust my story with someone else. Do you know what I mean? Because I think that like, there’s so many ways in which there’s a sense of betrayal right on. And that we can carry from our lives. And so I’m wondering, how did trust come up in this for you?

Kayla Gore:

For me, coming from a national organization working with Oluchi at the Transgender Law Center and having a comms team, and having them vet different media outlets before we give them our stories or tell them our nitty-gritty of, you know, the work that we’re doing.

We didn’t have to do that because we knew that it was coming from good stuff. 

We knew it was coming from people who are familiar with our experiences in life and how we experience life. So I don’t think it was, hmm, let me vet these people.

I knew of TransLash, I knew of you, and I knew of PBS of course, I grew up on that. That waslike the freest television ever.

Breonna McCree:

I loved The Electric Company and Sesame Street.

Oluchi Omeoga:

It was so funny though, ’cause I remember vividly like, the back and forth that was happening, because like Shelby actually texted me and Shelby was like, you need to talk to Imara. I was like, I didn’t get a call from Imara.

And then eventually we like got connected, and it wasn’t necessarily like a trusting, and like you telling the story. For me, it was more so like, why do you want me? I was like, there are so many other Black trans leaders here doing amazing work.

I was like, I think you were mistaking me with Ol. I think that’s who you want, and then you’re like, no it’s, it’s like we want you. And I think for me it was less about trusting you because I already knew around like all of the amazing documentaries that you did and the amazing narrative shift work that you’ve done, it was mainly like, I think you’re looking for the wrong person, you’re looking for the wrong nigga, and it’s not me, it might be someone else.

But I think that like once you were like, no, like we want you, then there was like a

re-trusting in myself and my own leadership that I had to do.

I think another really vulnerable moment was like my family being in the documentary and just like trusting like, that was like another hurdle for me because like my organizing work and my personal work usually is very siloed.

And so like that was like one of the first instances that it was kind of like a come together moment and also moment in which like my family got to hear about the work that I do in a way that’s not just like, I’m on MSNBC or Fox News and someone’s yelling at me ’cause I’m in the middle of a street.

Imara Jones:

I mean also, especially for the two people on the ends, but for all of you, we got very intimate, right? We’re in your mama’s house, we are in your house. We are hearing stories of you from, you know, remembrances that are extremely intimate. We’re literally in your parents’ house and your house. It’s, you know, it’s an intimate process.

So yeah, I just wanna express appreciation because we can only show as good a story as y’all allow us to show. Right. And you allowed us to show some, some really good stories.

So audience, I’m going to, this is your cue to think of your questions. We’re gonna take a few questions from the audience in a second.

This would be my last question.

So I’m telling y’all so that when we don’t, we don’t want that awkward moment when I’m like, when’s the question? And everyone’s like, okay, so we already had the awkward moment. It was just then. 

So right now when I say you’re gonna have your question:

We’re in an election year, and there’s not an issue that you all are working on that isn’t in the center of this particular campaign. And I’m wondering:

If you had an ability to call the people that are running together for office in a room, if they invited you and said, “what is the thing that I should know about what your community is facing from your vantage point, and the thing that I should do about it,” what would you say?

And let’s start with you Kayla, and go down the list.

Kayla Gore:

Oh, they put me in the hot seat. Okay.

Imara Jones:

Y’all are doing really well. I didn’t tell you these questions. So you’re doing quite well, I have to say, right?

Kayla Gore:

So I would definitely, we, we just got a new mayor, mayor Paul Young and we’ve been included in their budget as far as transitional housing funding goes.

So I would definitely like, you know, like hone in on, hey you’ve given us a little bit, now we need more. We’ve shown you what we can do in one year with a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Now let us show you what we can do. Like we can really, really flex out. So I definitely would like push the issue around housing policies and funding, right? Yeah. More availability of HUD funding for specific LGBT trans-specific housing as related to emergency transitional and permanent housing.

There’s funding already allocated federally, but it doesn’t really make it to organizations that are led by Black and brown trans people. Whether that’s because of capacity issues, whether that’s because of language barriers or disability issues or, or barriers. We just don’t feel into receiving that money and we have to find it other places like we did at My  Sistah’s House, which is through mutual aid; through people knowing people and saying, Hey, these people are worthy of your support down there in the South.

So I would definitely push toward more federal, state and local policies around funding and housing.

Imara Jones:

Yeah, we shown you what we can do with a couple hundred thousand, to how out a couple of million is what you’re saying. Yeah. I mean fundamentally also like the idea of the way that you instantly remove barriers to housing as ownership.

Like you instantly creating wealth by saying actually here’s a house and here’s land. And I always think that that’s,  ’cause it totally shifted my own point of view is like, well why do we have this process of essentially making it hard for people to, to be housed and to own?

That’s a choice. And I think that your program shows that.

Kayla Gore:

I agree. We modeled our emergency shelter off a housing first model and I feel like we’ve created a whole new model for how we house people through our transition and permanent housing. ‘Cause the tiny houses is like, people have a million questions and I’m like, oh these are all good questions.

But the answer is still like, yeah, very low barrier, no deposits, no…some things I can’t say because of insurance reasons. But – Yeah, there’s a lot of things that we that, that are typically done when people are, are leasing spaces or buying properties or land that we do not put people through.

We don’t ask a lot of invasive questions about income or income verification. It’s a really, like, I wish I had the process. I also wish I had a nice home for a lot of folks it’s their first place by themselves and they’re like, you can see, you saw they’re really, really nice homes and trans people, we really don’t get that experience in our lifetimes. Yes.

Imara Jones:

Breonna, what would you say?

Breonna McCree:

I would put them all in the room and say, you are the problem. I would say, yes, because they are, I would say your patriarchal systems are the problem that is killing America.

That is killing the land that we’re on.

But I would also say if you were to be able to shift the foundation for the most marginalized people, let me give you a blueprint on how to do that.

Because if you shift that foundation for us, then that lifts the foundation for everyone else.

Yeah. So I mean because with our program today, we have created almost 60 new entrepreneurs. Yes, we are working with the city to put them in pop-up shops all over the Bay area.

We are working with another project to actively put them in storefronts in the Tenderloin and beyond. And with extra funding we could fill the vacant storefronts in San Francisco.

Nordstrom’s, which is in one of the biggest mall is one is in one of the biggest malls in San Francisco, through our entrepreneurship program, we could fill that space in Nordstrom’s with trans and non-binary folks. That would be transformative in San Francisco,

a space that really it says “that we are a safe space for you. Come to us, we are your sanctuary city.”

Let me help you make this a sanctuary city for our most marginalized folks because it looks good for you as well. But it also helps us create ownerships and business. ‘Cause we’ve learned once we get in the door, then we hire each other and we make space for more of us to come in.

And I love how you said the Underground Railroad to the houses. ‘Cause we all are creating an underground railroad for Black and brown trans people. Let’s continue that.

But definitely they are still the problem.

Imara Jones:

Well, what’s not the problem are your shoes. They’re fabulous. Absolutely. What would you, I mean especially now, there’s so much going on. I mean, I’m being euphemistic, but there’s so much going on with immigration just in the past week and one of the things that we didn’t necessarily get to talk about is the way in which you personally, right?

Sometime and other people in BLMP get calls in the night of Black and brown trans people who are trapped on the other side of the border, because the border is now the only way to get into the United States, and have to try to bring them across using asylum laws. just in your area right now. What would you say?

Oluchi Omeoga:

Yeah, definitely ditto. I think too, I just, I’ve personally just been very unenthused about federal immigration policy in general, but I think the United States western powers have to be responsible for forced migration, period.

Yeah. The reason why people are leaving their homelands is not because they want to leave their homelands. If you live on an island, why would you wanna leave that? People are leaving their homelands because of Christian imperialism, because of patriarchy, gender-based violence, homophobia, transphobia.

And so because you are the cause of that problem, you need to be responsible for the solution. And what the United States is doing in this moment is the exact opposite.

We didn’t really talk about like what asylum looks like, but regardless of it’s a Democrat or a Republican in office, immigrants specifically will always be the first people that they attack.

And so the solution for that is one, get rid of detention.

A lot of folks don’t understand that if you present yourself and you seek asylum, you are automatically detained for an indefinite amount of time. Meaning that you are put in an immigrant prison. 

Get rid of detention for all folks who are seeking asylum.

I think the other thing that some folks don’t really conceptualize, is even when we think about these social services that we want folks to have: homes, we want folks to have economic freedom, that does not exist if you are not a citizen of the United States.

If you are undocumented or under-documented, you do not receive those same social services, and you might not even have a working document or a travel document. So you can’t even travel to see someone that might be dying in your home country.

And so why are there restrictions on folks who are who coming here because of the different tactics that we have used, while then restricting their migration even within the United States?

So just shifting our narrative on what we, what that looks like when we think about immigrants and migrant folks.

Imara Jones:

Thank you for that. Questions.

Oh, there’s one question in the back.

Audience Member:

Thanks for sharing your stories. I wanted to ask, what common personal themes or struggles do you see that Black trans leaders experience that don’t normally get represented or shared?

Oluchi Omeoga:

Can you repeat the question again? Sorry.

Audience Member:

Absolutely. What common personal themes or struggles do you see Black trans leaders experience that don’t normally get represented or shared? Yeah.

Breonna McCree:

I don’t wanna say our struggles because I feel like our struggles are always shared. That’s why  the work was created, because of our struggles and our disparities.

What doesn’t get shared is the way we create community. Mm.

The way we love on each other.

The way we create families.

the way like when we are in the streets, how we come together to survive in the streets.

I was on the streets for five years and I created family on the streets.

I met a woman that saved my life on the streets. Those are the stories that need to be shared.

I’m not gonna cry. I got on lashes. 

Imara Jones:

Too late. You already cried. 

Breonna McCree:

But those are the stories that need to be shared.

Kayla Gore:

Yeah, I would definitely agree. We share a lot when, and we go to therapy afterwards and

sometimes before, and then sometimes in that moment that is therapy for us to be able to share like our trans, like things that have transgressed us throughout our lives.

But I would like to see more moments of joy and liberation because we talk about getting there, but there are moments of joy and there are moments of liberation that we really don’t get to relish in.

This is one of those moments. So I think like having this broadcasted is another moment of like sharing that.

Like, we’re not just like, like look at us. We, we, we fine and fly up here.

So it’s not all bad. I said that to say it’s not all bad. We really do get to enjoy our lives and we get to see people enjoying their lives and their lives changing.

Like your story about Dolores, like that moved me. And then hearing that you’re paying it forward to other people and giving them an opportunity, not just giving them words of encouragement, but you’re giving them words of encouragement and there are tangible things attached to those words, which makes a whole heck of a difference.

Imara Jones:

Yeah. Yes. Right here.

Audience Member:

So first of all, I think there could be a film about each of you. And I hope that there is someday because I, the, the way the film was done was so well done. It leaves me wanting more, you know.

Specifically, I’m so curious about like where you said there’s over half a million dollars in grants given out and I think that was in, in the movie for Breonna’s.

Yeah. Yeah. Where did that come from? Is that from the city budget?

Breonna McCree:

Yeah, that’s from the city and county of San Francisco.  And I have to say thanks to Mayor Breed, our city mayor in San Francisco, she really invests in economic empowerment and ending trans homelessness.

She really puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to investing in the uplifting of trans and non-binary people in San Francisco.

We just recently passed a bill saying that San Francisco is now a sanctuary city on paper and we are the only city that has a Transgender History Month that is recognized in the

state of California due to Mayor Breed and Jupiter Peraza of The Transgender District.

Imara Jones:

One last question we have time for. Yep. Right here.

Audience Member:

What can the rest of us do to help?

Breonna McCree:

Money, money, money, money, period. 

Support the work that we do? Yeah. If you can’t donate money to the cause, uplift and amplify our story, share ’em on social media.

More visibility means more eyes on the things that we do for the people that we serve.

Oluchi Omeoga:

I would also say research the different movements that we are coming from, like what locally is happening in terms of housing for trans people where you live. 

What is happening as far as economic liberation? What is happening on the immigration front?

Because I think that one thing is the, the funding piece, but I think that there needs to be more collective political education around all of the things that are happening so that when we do have a moment where there’s like a mobilization, folks are more versed and more like, they’re more privy to what’s going on and they understand the fights and the local movements that are moving that work.

Kayla Gore:

I would agree with what both of them said. In addition to like people power. 

We are building houses and a lot of times it takes people and a community to help people get acclimated to home ownership. And that can look like cutting grass, helping them build a fence, like fixing things around their homes.

We have people who are 76 years old in some of our homes. So just, you know, just checking in on them and making sure that they’re not isolated in their new home.

So I think we really look for a lot of volunteers. I know y’all are up here in New York, but if you got a auntie or cousin that’s down there in the South, or they coming through Memphis, tell ’em to look us up, hit us up and you know, stop by. I will always have some outdoor work for you to do.

It’s true. I didn’t get this tan for nothing. It’s absolutely true. And it wasn’t on a beach.

Imara Jones:

I would also say that it’s just also extremely important to think that one, trans people are important. Like that’s a thing that most people don’t think about, but it actually, once you accept that, it shifts things.

And I also think understanding the centrality of trans lives to this moment and to this election, I would also add to that. I think that that’s a really important thing to hold onto as well.

Well thank you all so much. 

We want to invite you to hang around for the next half an hour or so. The drinks are on us

outside. There’s an open bar.

There’s also a step and repeat where you can take pictures of yourself, of the people who are in the film with each other. We would love for you all to do that.

Please make sure that you use the hashtag #AmericanProblemsTransSolutions and remember to watch on the 24th at 9:00 PM Eastern. But if you’re out beyond the East Coast, check your local listing because it changes station to station. Check your local PBS listing. 

And thank you all so much for coming. And Happy Juneteenth and Happy Pride. 

Happy Juneteenth.

Behind-the-Scenes at Translash’s Juneteenth Event

Enjoy some of the highlights from our American Problems, Trans Solutions special screening event with WNYC’s The Greene Space!

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