The transgender community, including friends and family, turned out to honor its past and present at the sixth annual Transgender Day of Empowerment at the San Diego LGBT Community Center, last Friday.

“Your presence here says today loudly and clearly that we love our transgender community, that we are united. So that when we see efforts in Washington, D.C., to give rights to only a portion of our community, but not to all of it, then all of you are with me in saying ‘no way.’ And any time we try to marginalize or get ahead of one another because it’s easier or somehow works out, that we will say ‘no,’ because we know that full equality will not happen unless the T, the G, the L and the B are united as one,” said City Councilmember Todd Gloria, in front of approximately 150 people in attendance.

The event, hosted by Tracie O’Brien, coordinator of Project Star, Supporting Transgender Access to Resources, a program of Family Health Centers of San Diego, included several speakers and award ceremonies, a presentation on two key transgender historical figures, and performances by D’markis Wigfall and the Christ Chapel Church Choir.

Jelecia King, a member of San Diego’s Transgender Advocacy and Services Center, gave the invocation, written by activist Marianne Williamson.

“Sometimes we ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous. Actually, the question should be, who am I not to be all those things. We are your children Lord, and playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking ourselves so other people won’t feel insecure around us. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God’s light that’s within us. It’s not just in some of us. It’s in all of us and as we let our own light shine, we give others the permission to do the same. As we liberated our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others. At the end of this evening, I pray that everyone leaves empowered and changed,” said King.

Jennifer Miller, local transgender activist, gave the opening message, asking, “What is empowerment? What does it mean to be empowered? Empowerment is ultimately driven by an individual’s belief in their capability to influence events,” Miller said, discussing her life as an example.

In 1987, Miller ended a 23-year opposite-sex marriage, as a man, and decided to seek a new life as a woman. In 1996, she had a mental breakdown and went on disability. Her final sex-reassignment surgery in 2001, however, helped her rebound.

“My life did change after I had my surgery. I had the opportunity, therefore the empowerment, to take charge of my life as Jennifer,” Miller said.

Paola Gonzalez, case manager at Family Health Center of San Diego, and Kailin Johnson, member of the event’s planning committee, honored Sylvia Lee Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, two-transgender women who played major roles in the transgender community’s fight for civil rights.

Rivera, Latina, and Johnson, black, were both transgender activists who began their work in the late 1960s. They took part in the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) a social-service organization specifically for transgender people in New York City in the early ’70s. Their lives eventually took them on different paths. Rivera fought for the inclusion of transgender representation in gay and lesbian organizations and civil-rights legislation; whereas, Johnson advocated for the homeless.

City Commissioner Murray-Ramirez gave the keynote address covering everything from the history of the transgender community to police mistreatment.

“There are those who wish to sanitize our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender history, to make it more acceptable. [To that] I say ‘bullshit,’” Murray-Ramirez said.

Murray-Ramirez mentioned an invitation he received years ago to attend an event in New York City to commemorate Stonewall’s 25th anniversary. The invitation referred to those who fought in the Stonewall Riots as patrons.

“Who are the patrons? Why are you sanitizing them?” asked Murray-Ramirez.

“The facts are, the Stonewall riots were about fierce, proud Latino and Latina, black transsexuals and drag queens and their butch sister dykes. That’s who started Stonewall.”

Murray-Ramirez concluded by acknowledging a transgender woman, named Paris, sitting in the audience.

Last fall, Murray-Ramirez said, he had received a call from Richard Britton, manager of Rich’s nightclub. Paris, one of Britton’s performers, had been arrested for being over-intoxicated and sent to the county jail, where she was subjected to “the most disgusting and ugly, and unacceptable things [that I have ever heard],” Murray-Ramirez said.

Murray-Ramirez got in touch with Paris and persuaded her to go back to the jail, along with him and local transgender advocates Connor Maddox and Carolina Ramos, and tell her story to San Diego Undersheriff William Gore. In January, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department announced a new treatment policy on transgender people.

“Because of Paris, transgender people will now be treated with decency,” said Murray-Ramirez and asked Paris to stand up.

As the audience applauded, Paris stood up with tears in her eyes.

“I want to thank you Paris. Your courage has made it possible that no other transgender person in San Diego, man or woman, will be subjected to such ugly treatment ever again,” Murray-Ramirez said.

After several awards were given, Dows, a local transgender man, read from a letter written by his mother, who, at the time, was coming to terms with having a transgender son.

“As a mother, it is sad to say goodbye to my little girl. I know that person will always live in my heart, in my memories, in my pictures. But I am proud to say ‘Adios young woman; hello young man.’ I am proud of you for your struggle, and I am proud that you have found the right road. I am privileged to know you. I hope everyone I know now or will know in the future will be honored to know you. I am proud of the man my child is becoming. I am proud he has the strength and conviction to do what is right for him. I am not so proud of how some people view him as a person. In closing, I’d like to introduce my son Elijah to my friends and family,” Dows said.

Community Service: Stepping Stone and Maria Gallegos

Special Appreciation: Richard Joseph Salon, Brenda Watson and Onyx

Special Recognition: Carolina Ramos, Amador Cerda, TASC and Ricky Evens

Youth: Monique and Empress Cassandra

Satin Styles Youth: Giselle Herrera

Legends: Empress Norma, Simone, Angela and Elena Albee