Trans Joy Festival features speakers, vendors, drag show

Residence hall and student organization Demarest Hall hosted their annual Trans Joy Festival to create a community for transgender students and inform people of issues concerning transgender life.

The three day festival began Wednesday with a tabling event for vendor booths from trans students and community members, as well as information booths by student organizations and trans advocacy groups to discuss issues including legislation that affects trans people and how to take hormone treatments safely.

The event also included a wall where students could put sticky-notes with things that bring them “Trans Joy” and a raffle for students who visited multiple information booths.

Students and Demarest Hall resident Rae sold prints and stickers of their own design under their artist name PosterGirl. They said they liked participating in the spirit of Trans Joy with their art.

“We are here selling basically hand made art because art is an expression of joy, and this is trans joy, which is awesome.” Rae said.

Jack worked a booth selling Demarest Hall merch, including patches, pins, and stickers. They said events like these are why Demarest Hall serves as an important community space for many students.

“It welcomes people not just at Demarest but at Rutgers in general, and even outside of Rutgers,” Jack said. “It definitely brings people together and shows there’s a community for everyone.”

Representatives from LGBTQ+ advocacy group Garden State Equality tabled at the event, speaking to students about ways the group advocates for trans people and trans rights.

Garden State Equality Representative Aisling MacDonald spoke to WRSU on the importance of student outreach at events like Trans Joy. 

“Public universities like this are the birthplace of every kind of human rights advancing movement you can think of,” Macdonald said. “This is where the innovation and the dreaming happens. And maybe counter-intuitively, this is where folks need a lot of support.”

Macdonald also discussed the “shield” bill currently being heard by state legislators that would give protections to medical professionals who give gender affirming care.

Students from the School of Pharmacy tabled to educate attendees on how to safely use and dispose of medical needles used in gender affirming care. 

Pharmacy student Raghu said community events like Trans Joy are good opportunities to inform students by speaking to them directly rather than distributing information digitally.

“When you read something online your eyes kind of drift to all the scary side effects, but that’s not always necessarily the case,” Raghu said. “With medications like this there is a risk to them, but if it’s dosed properly and under the correct supervision, it can definitely be safe and important to many people.”

CAPS counselors Will Vargas and Manda Gatto speak at Trans Joy (Photo: Noah Choi)

The second day featured speakers to discuss trans community support systems and political organizing to protect trans rights. 

Co-president of Demarest and lead organizer Roman lead a presentation with pharmacy student Bridgette to break down basic medical terms regarding trans health, including legal rights of trans people with issues like government IDs, and mythbusting commonly held assumptions about trans people.

According to the presentation, detransitioning, or when trans people choose to re-identify with the gender assigned at birth, make up less than one percent of trans people, and many detransition due to external societal pressures rather than personal feelings about their identity.

Will Vargas and Manda Gatto, counselors at the Counseling, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program & Psychiatric Services, discussed the resources available to trans students at Rutgers. They also discussed their unique perspective helping LGBTQ+ students, as they are both queer themselves.

“For some of us on the staff at CAPS, we don’t just talk the talk, we’re walking the walk,” Gatto told attendees. “I’m also a queer woman, and I think that gives a lot of students some comfort…They don’t have to go into detail to explain certain things.”

Vargas discussed how they and Gatto helped form the first gender affirming support group in New Jersey, and how they’ve watched the trans community grow in the state.

“The anti-trans rhetoric continues to be very strong…After you graduate there aren’t enough places and space where you feel like you can create community and be together with other people who are like you,” Vargas told WRSU “That’s part of the reason why it’s so important to create community, be part of community, find your people.”

Professor Janice Fine in the School of Management and Labor Relations discussed how students should get organized and make political change through community outreach.

Some members of the audience raised concerns about fighting for trans protections through traditional political pathways, saying those methods rely on trusting politicians who have historically chosen to pass legislation that oppresses trans people.

In an interview with WRSU, Fine said whatever path students take to fight for trans rights, building communities of support and serving as leaders are fundamental to any change.

“We not only have to build the ranks of our organizations. But people need to take on significant roles in organizations. They need to work as leaders and see themselves as recruiters,” Fine said in an interview. “That is the font of anything you want to do, whether it’s direct action, whether it’s mutual support. We can’t do it by ourselves.”

After between speakers, organizer Roman asked students to reflect on how the discussion made them feel, and to turn those feelings into action.

In an interview with WRSU, Roman discussed the next steps students should take if they want to get involved in political movements for trans rights.

“The first step [students] should be taking is getting in contact with Garden State Equality…Join the New Jersey for Healthcare campaign,” Roman said. “People need to speak to their local legislators.”

Junior Griffin said she came to show support for the trans community and her friends in the community. She said she learned a lot about the resources available to trans students and that the event reflected the sincere efforts by organizers to educate and support students.

“I’m impressed by the extent to which this is funded. It’s clearly been fought for,” Griffin said. “It’s always important to have more resources.”

Organizers also distributed business cards of trans support resources, literature on trans health, and an opportunity to sign up for Garden State Equality’s email list so they can stay informed on the movement to protect trans rights.

Ophelia Dacryphilia performs at Demarest Drag Show (Photo: Andrew Hawthorne)

For the third night of the festival, Demarest dimmed the lights to welcome student and community performers for their semesterly drag show.

The show was emceed by two hosts of the same name, Poison Ivy and Poison Ivy, and featured student drag queens dancing, singing, and lip-syncing to cheering attendees.

Some performers had creative spins on the typical drag style, with performances including an Irish stepdance, a parody of Family Feud’s Steve Harvey, and a nature documentary style narrative showing a Quaill’s mating ritual and eventual fall into a dating self-improvement scam.

Ophelia Dacryphilia, real name Will, performed to multiple songs, intercut with recordings of her own voice, including “Sue Me”, by Audrey Hobert. Her performance told the story of a prom queen dumped on prom night.

Dacryphilia said she performed at a drag show at Demarest last year, and hopes to keep returning in the future.

“Last semester was my first semester performing, and I came back because it was a lot of fun,” Dacryphilia said. “I’m planning on doing it next semester and the semester after that, as much as possible.”

Penny Farthing, real name Julie, sang “I Don’t Care Much” and “Cabaret” from the musical “Cabaret”.

Farthing said she does not sing often, but she felt welcomed to try performing in the Demarest community.

“Space like this allow people to express themselves and do things that they normally wouldn’t in other spaces,” Farthing said. “I’m usually normally a very anxious person so I’d normally never go up and perform and scream a song in front of a big audience, but I was just thinking: you know what? [I should] take advantage of the opportunity and have fun.”

Penny Farthing sings “Cabaret” at drag show (Photo: Andrew Hawthorne)

Demarest Hall hosts multiple student community and performing events like the Trans Joy Festival throughout the academic year, often with a focus on LGBTQ+ support. 

Maryam Malihi and Noah Choi contributed to this story.