Watch the Aug. 10, 2020 presentation on How to be A Trans Ally with T. Michael Grimm and Jace C. Ryden.

This presentation, based on the personal lived experiences of Michael and Jace introduces transgender allyship, starting at the beginning; with defining commonly used terms like cis-, and transgender. In this presentation, transgender means a person whose identity does not correspond to the sex assigned at birth.

In this presentation, Michael and Jace review the gender identity spectrum, considering assigned at birth sex (female, intersex, male), gender identity (man, nonbinary, woman, a-gender) and gender expression (masculine androgynous, feminine, other), or how people present themselves in terms of cultural gender representation.

Becoming an ally means showing up to events, showing up to learn about transgender communities issues, and not taking up space or taking over the agenda. Instead, being a trans ally, is about amplifying the voices and causes of the trans organizers. Being an ally is like being a guest in a community, where you as the ally has the opportunity to respect and repeat the message of trans communities, rather than creating different messages about trans causes. Michael and and Jace invite allies to think of passive allyship as a start. Educating yourself to be a trans ally, or wearing buttons and t-shirts that support transgender people is a passive way to support transgender communities, but supporting positive change through activism should be the goal of an active ally.

In this talk about how to be a transgender ally, you can learn how to identify aggressions against transgender communities, ways to identify and understand privilege and learn how act against anti-trans statements and actions.

Speaker bios

Michael, aka performer Teddy Michael, serves as Grand Duke XV to the Imperial Court of Arizona. Michael was featured on MTVs True Life in 2009 and 2015 and is an award winning promoter and pageant owner.

Jace Ryden has been performing as Freddy Prinze Charming since 2005 and is the current Mister USA MI Classic. Jace has won numerous local, state and national awards and is cohost of the podcast Let’s Have a Fefe, which is in it’s eighth season. Jace has volunteered and worked with several state organizations such as Joshua Tree Feeding pProgram, rebel and divine, GLSEN and more.

Both speakers have used their platforms to fundraise and be activists for the LTBTQ communities in Arizona and beyond.

This event was hosted by Let’s Get Better Together conference organizers for free thanks to our ongoing sponsors below: The LGBTQ Behavioral Health Coalition of Southern Arizona and the Queer Resource Collective.

Sponsors include:

Alliance Behavioral Health Care, Arizona Complete Health, Aunt Rita’s Foundation, the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy at ASU, Oasis Psychological Services, Community Bridges, Inc., Health Choice Arizona, Magellan Complete Care, Mercy Care, Palo Verde Behavioral Health, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc., The Arizona Council of Human Service Providers and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.