The Dec. 16 SF Team Winter party at the LGBT Center. Co-chair Martin Rawlings-Fein, Cecilia Chung, Glide's Calvin Gipson, Co-chair Joanne Keatley and Mark Leno

The 4th annual Winter T Party produced by SF TEAM (Transgender Empowerment, Advocacy, and Mentorship) on Dec. 16 was a huge success, bringing transgendered people and their friends together for an evening of musical entertainment and a brief summary of the accomplishments for the trans community. Tiffany Woods acted as emcee, opening the show and remarking, “There’s idiots out there in the cold, killing to find the perfect Christmas gift, but we’re all warm inside here, ready to rock out!” In the house were City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, Police Commissioner Theresa Sparks, Deputy Director of Transgender Law Center Cecelia Chung, and Assemblyman Mark Leno. Performing were the drag king band, Wood; guitarist/vocalist CJ King, and rocker Shawna Virago.

Wood, a drag king gender-bending band, used to be called “The Woodies,” but have transitioned, as it were, to their new name and focus on metal rock covers. They performed an entire set, from The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” to Queen’s “Fat-Bottomed Girl” and many other rock numbers.

Jo Anne Keatley and Marty Rawlings-Fein, co-chairs of SF TEAM, spoke about some of the accomplishments made for the transgender community over the past year. The Transgender Job Fair was extremely successful. Held at the LGBT Community Center earlier this year, over 150 people signed in to attend the Fair. Ten people almost immediately got jobs from the Fair. Among the presenters for the Fair were representatives from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Good Vibrations, and the SF Police Department. “This was the very first job fair specifically targeting transgendered individuals in the country,” said Keatley. “Later on we worked with other communities, so that now these fairs have been replicated elsewhere in the nation—including New York and Florida.”

SF TEAM also helped co-organize the Transgender March, as well as the Transgender Pride Awards held at the Center, and the trans booth at the SF LGBT Pride Celebration at Civic Center. “We really believe in collaboration with others so that together we all can move forward for human rights,” said Keatley. She said they intend to stage six events throughout the coming year—one being the second annual Transgender Job Fair on March 22.

Next year SF TEAM will be commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Compton Cafeteria Riots, where transgendered people staged a revolt in San Francisco’s Tenderloin similar and prior to the Stonewall Riots in New York City. “The Compton Riots is an important milestone in our history and really shows San Francisco that we were there at the very beginning,” said Keatley. “We have to take our place at the table, and in order to do that, we need to show up in force at this event.” She added, “We need to put aside any differences we may have with one another, come together, and truly show the [lesbian, gay, bi] community that we can do this.” Rawlings-Fein said this will be bigger than anything they’ve ever done.

In May, they will be kicking off a play that they said hopefully will go to Broadway, Portraits from a Ghettoized Population, by local playwright Red Jordan Arobateau and produced by Dominique. It is a play in two acts, and there will be a casting call for seven to 10 transgender roles—all ages, races, and genders. The call will be held on Jan. 22, 2-5pm and Jan. 23, 6-9pm at the Center for Sex and Culture, 398 11th Street and Harrison, 3rd floor.

Referring to Wood, Assembly-man Mark Leno quipped, “That last act was tough to follow, if not hard to follow.” He added, “I want to say happy holidays and thank you to TEAM, which is doing a tremendous job. We have a lot of good work to do in the coming years, and it is so wonderfully exciting and heartening to see this TG community get stronger and larger and more beautiful every day and every year!”