By Barrett White
A Puerto Rican military brat from Virginia, out trans man, filmmaker, and community advocate André Pérez knew the importance of standing up for what’s right from an early age. “Even as a kid, I got angry about things that seemed wrong,” he explains. “I learn about the world from observing and listening to others, and I’m always paying attention to why things are the way they are, how things change, and what we can do.”
In 2008, Pérez founded the Trans Oral History Project as a way to collect and document the stories of fellow transgender and gender non-conforming people and to share their narratives at little to no cost. He has since expanded his work to include his latest project, America in Transition, a documentary series and community engagement campaign that explores what it means to be a trans person of color in the United States. Pérez travels across America, including to several southern states, to interview and document trans and gender-variant lives on camera. The interviewees act as storytellers, detailing their experiences as artists, entrepreneurs, HIV advocates, veterans, and more. “Rural communities tend to have less formal infrastructure than urban areas, but there are amazing queer people who have been supporting each other,” Pérez says. “Take the time to learn about and celebrate local heroes and sheroes—from community mamas who take in folks who are kicked out by their families to young people gathering in DIY spaces to share their art with one another. We have the power to create affirming cultural spaces and to document our own histories rather than waiting for someone else to do it.”
Tiommi Luckett, a trans woman from Arkansas, discusses issues of HIV criminalization, sexual violence, and healing from trauma in episode one of ‘America in Transition.’ Photo courtesy America in Transition.
Being trans in the South has been both eye opening and self-affirming, Pérez adds as he recalls his first meet-up for the project, where there were trans men in cut-off jeans driving pick-up trucks. “Being in a space that was loving and supportive while being decidedly country was inspiring,” he recounts. “It made see that there are infinite ways to be queer.”
Pérez hopes that the project’s visibility and solidarity brings about an understanding of and relatability to the trans experience—especially to the vastly overlooked struggles of trans people of color and trans immigrants. “The majority of LGBTQ organizations aren’t talking about the disproportionate numbers of trans people seeking asylum to the U.S., the way the threat of prison impacts HIV in black communities, or uplifting organizations like Southerners on New Ground that have been fighting for queer liberation for generations,” Pérez says.
Rather than focusing solely on the trans community’s staggering statistics—like the fact that 41 percent of trans people attempt suicide, and many more live their lives feeling isolated from family and society— Pérez aims to tell stories of humanity and to portray the similarities between our experiences to foster community. “I want to create portrayals that [show] young trans and queer people of color [that they] are not alone,” Pérez says. “I want to create spaces where people can come together, listen to one another, and where we can activate allies to support us in making more trans-inclusive spaces everywhere.”
However, the catch-22 of visibility is a tough one. Pérez recalls when HB2 first passed and the footage of rallies was on every television. Just when he believed that the reaction would bring about change for the better, he received a call from an America in Transition colleague and storyteller, North Carolina-based trans activist Z Shane Zaldivar. Zaldivar’s wife had briefly appeared in the background of protest footage—and was promptly fired from her job. She had worked as an in-home caretaker, and clients told her company that they didn’t want “someone like her” taking care of their parents. “Visibility is a complicated thing,” Pérez says. “Often advocates and their families are the ones who make personal sacrifices to push the movement forward, so it encouraged me to think even deeper about my responsibility to people like Z and his wife and everyone involved in the series.”
North Carolina-based trans activist Z Shane Zaldivar shares his story in ‘America in Transition.’ Photo courtesy America in Transition.
But Pérez isn’t stopping there. Ambitious and clever, he never envisioned an idle project with one outcome. America in Transition is expected to continue to evolve with collaborative efforts between Depaul University and himself. Through this next endeavor, he hopes to release a point-of-view game where users are faced with challenges that they may not have experienced in real life—such as engaging in sex work, using hormones from the streets, or immigrating illegally—and have to make choices based on those situations. Pérez also hopes to eventually work on a full-length documentary specifically about LGBTQ people in the South.
To learn more about the project, to get involved, or to book a community screening of America in Transition, visit americaintransition.org.
