My Public Speech from Transgender Day of Remembrance

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activism, gender queer, justin credible, kris grey, kris grey/justin credible, kristin grey, lgbt, Ohio University, public speech, queer, trans, transgender, transgender day of remembrance

My name is Kris Grey. I am in my 3^rd and final year of my Masters of Fine Art at Ohio University in Athens, OH. I am an artist, activist, educator, entertainer and I also happen to be transgender. And so it is with personal and deep sincerity that I thank you for being here with me to mark the 13^th annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Earlier we heard from members of our community, each reading out the name of an individual who we have lost this year due to anti-transgender hatred and violence. There’s an old union slogan that states, “An injury to one is an injury to all”. I’d like to use this slogan as a guide to frame the violence inflicted on those whose names we read as a violation done to each of us here tonight. But violence is just the most direct evidence of a wider social problem.

This year the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force together with the National Center for Transgender Equality published the only and most comprehensive survey of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the United States. Injustice at Every Turn shines a light on the way systematic and institutional discrimination touches every part of transgender life in America. Gender non-conforming individuals experience discrimination at home, in school, in the housing market, on the job, in our medical system, by the police, the prison industrial complex, and in public accommodations. The tragic and early end to the lives we gather here to mark is symptomatic of pervasive discrimination. And in the wake of their passing I am here to ask you to join me in recommitting ourselves to fight for full equality for all transgender and gender non-conforming people.

The Massachusetts legislature just passed a transgender rights bill, making Massachusetts the 16th state in the union to protect the human rights of transgender individuals. The bill protects transgender residents of Massachusetts in housing, credit, and the workplace, and includes transgender people under hate crimes protections. Here in the City of Athens, due in large part to the dedicated work of the Committee to move Athens Forward, we have included language in our hate crime policies that specifically includes sexual orientation and gender identity. But just outside the city limits there exists no such protection for our community members.

In the face of overwhelming harassment, mistreatment, and discrimination, as my favorite part of Injustice at Every Turn points out, Transgender and Gender non-conforming survey participants demonstrated willful determination, resourcefulness and perseverance. Although there are many structural barriers an overwhelming majority of trans folks did seek out and find medical treatment, meet their education goals, and my favorite statistic:

“Over three-fourths (78%) reported feeling more comfortable at work and their performance improving after transitioning, despite reporting nearly the same rates of harassment at work as the overall sample.” NGLTF

Transition isn’t like flipping a light switch. For some folks living in the borders outside the binary is a destination. For others the desire to fit into existing gender categories is key. Transitioning may just mean coming out or claiming a non-conforming gender identity in public, to friends, or co-workers. It is imperative that we decriminalize trans folks and make space both privately and publicly for their gender expression. No significant human rights campaign has survived solely on the words and actions of its disadvantaged group members. It is important, weather you identify as trans or not, to act as allies. In fact if we think of the term not as an adjective but as a verb- to ally, then perhaps we will be encouraged to continue forming alliances with each other and with the world around us. We can all make it our intention to be supportive, empathetic, caring people and actively show up for those who experience systematic and institutional discrimination.

The only way we’re going to end hatred is to lead with love!

Intimate Gestures

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beard, facial hair, gender queer, intimate gestures, justin credible, kris grey, kris grey/justin credible, kristin grey, live art, one-one-one, performance, performance art, personal theater, queer, trans, transgender

Intimacy as an idea or action evokes feelings of familiarity, closeness, trust and affection. Some may reserve it for those they feel closest to or are in a relationship with. Physical gestures of intimacy most often happen in familiar spaces of love, sex, family, friendships or the domestic. Occasionally patterns arise which break these conventions.

I spend a lot of time coming out as transgender usually to complete strangers and mostly in the public or through performance. In the pursuit of a gender queer embodiment, my sometimes-ambiguous body has steadily moved towards perceived as and assumed to be male. Especially now that I have facial hair, when I tell people that I’m trans they immediately assume I was male assigned and would like to be female. In the past two months since I’ve been growing a beard there has been another significant trend. Usually without asking, people who I am just meeting reach out and touch my face. It is a very intimate gesture and one that has prompted a new line of inquiry.

This Friday I presented a one-on-one performance piece at the Ridges. Intimate Gestures is a personal theater that explores the transitional body, identity, family, gender, and physical exchange. If seeing is believing and what you see seems to be deceiving then perhaps you might look for confirmation in the touch.

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Special thanks to Courtney Kessel and Paige Wright
For more images visit my newly updated website http://kristingrey.com

Travel Tranny

In the recent years I have been working to unite my art making practice with my lived experience. And I’ve arrived here through the study and committed practice of craft. I was trained in ceramics at the Maryland Institute College of Art where I picked up a classical art education along with a minor in language and literature. I’ve always been interested in sex, sexuality, and gender and have progressed from creating objects to making installations and performances.

During my time in graduate school at Ohio University I have had opportunities that have expanded my pallet, stretched my imagination, and challenged my critical practice. I’m just returning from almost a week away in Kuopio, Finland where I attended my first ANTI Festival with the support and guidance of one of my graduate committee members, Jennie Klein.

TravelTranny was a blog idea that was born out of my desire to track experiences I have out there in the binary weather I’m in Appalachia or Eastern Europe. As a trans-queer body I have daily encounters that are funny, interesting and poignant. Whenever I travel I bring along my Ask A Tranny sign. Ask A Tranny is an ongoing, interactive, public performance, social action and online project that has been performed internationally in cities including Athens, OH, Baltimore, MD, New York City, NY, London, UK and Kuopio, Finland. I manage the recorded content from these public interactions and produce videos for my youtube station http://www.youtube.com/user/JustinCredibleBoi and I try to keep my website http://kristingrey.com as up to date as possible.

I hope you’ll join me here as a supplemental component to my work where I can muse about events, actions, and the places I go. Come along as we explore adventures outside the binary!

Here’s an overview of some of my previous work.

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