A Night of Pride

On Saturday, the LGBT community (emphasis on the T) took to the streets of Cochabamba for the annual pride march. The festivities centered around the transsexual female community and drag community. Thousands of people came out to watch the march and support the movement. It was an incredibly moving experience and accumlated in the best night I have had so far in Cochabamba.

The irony of it all is that so many Transsexual women took the streets and were supported by the community, when any other night, many of these women would be on streets in a very different context. On those nights, the discrimination against transsexual women runs rampant. In a society where Trans women have no employment options other than sex work, it is deeply upsetting to see the Cochabambino community support their neighbors for only one night a year. I couldn't help but think, "Tomorrow, these women will be out on the streets again, but there will not be a crowd cheering them on." 

Start of the march.

Glamorous.

The outfits were incredible.

Fierce!

Dancing to Gaga.

Trans* and Transportation

Yesterday, I met with a woman named Rayza who is MTF and currently fighting for her legal name change in Cochabamba (it's not legal anywhere in Bolivia). I met with her to discuss the documentary I am creating about the Trans community. I want her to be my main story line because she is the biggest activist here in Cochabamba and is really well known in the community. She reviewed my proposal and was very interested and willing to help. Some of the things she talked about as far as the Trans community goes:

• It is much safer in Cochabamba to be FTM than MTF because of the machismo attitudes of most men. There is much more likely to be violence against a person intentionally not displaying their masculinity.
• Her biggest goal for the documentary was to expose the difference between what I think is essentially "drag" culture (or what she called "transformativos") and people who identify as transsexual or transgender. She explained that the general population of Bolivia tends to think that people who are Trans are people who decide to "cross-dress," but that they population doesn't have any understanding of actual trans identities-- i.e. People who were born into bodies that do not fit their emotional or mental identity. 
• The biggest legal fight right now for the Trans community is to legalize name changes for Trans people. This is even more difficult in Bolivia, however, because of the issue of lack of documentation for much of the population. A lot of people don't have identity cards/birth certificates/etc. to begin with. The second fight is to promote inclusive policies in the work place to ensure that no one is fired from their job based on gender identity.

On a different note, I took some (not that good) pictures of the various kinds of transportation I take yesterday. 

A "Micro" bus w/ a set route around the city. You hail the bus from the side of the street and hopes it stops for you! 1.70bs/ride

The white car is a "Taxi," but a sketch one. A lot of cars but a sticker that says Taxi on their windshield, but they are not actually part of a company or anything.

The front end of a Truffi bus. A VW-esque van with extra seats. It drives a set route and you also hail it from the sidewalk. Normally they are PACKED.