Silver Lake community celebrates Transgender Day of Visibility
SILVER LAKE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The community gathered in Silver Lake on Monday night to commemorate International Transgender Day of Visibility.
The annual event celebrates the lives and achievements of trans people, while also drawing attention to discrimination and other issues the community faces.
The Trans Chorus of Los Angeles delivered a musical message, with the crowd filling The Black Cat Tavern in Silver Lake.
"We're using this day to amplify our trans community, but really we need to be amplifying them on a daily basis," said PJ Brescia, event organizer and founder of BabyGay, a queer & ally community celebrating the coming out process.
The event featured the work of photographer Zach Oren, who spent nearly eight years traveling around the country taking hundreds of photos of members of the trans community.
"To make sure that voices that have a different intersectionality are highlighted, voices that we don't normally hear from," stated Oren. "Whether it's black folks, indigenous folks, women folks, disabled folks, or younger narratives."
The Black Cat's relationship with the LGBTQ+ community dates back nearly 60 years.
The bar opened its doors to a gay clientele at a time when same-sex relationships were criminalized. On New Year's Eve in 1966, police officers raided the black cat.
Daniel Henning, the resident historian of The Black Cat, added, "These two people kissing sparked the undercover police in the room to start beating people up. There became a riot in this very room we're standing in right now."
That event on February 11, 1967, led to a rally in front of The Black Cat, one of the first documented LGBTQ+ rights demonstrations in the nation.
As they continue to fight for rights, organizers of the event say it's important to come together and celebrate the trans community.
