Seattle Trans March kicks off Pride with 2000

SEATTLE - Gay pride is a mainstream cause in Seattle, symbolized by a glittering Sunday parade that in recent years has moved from the LGBT heartland of Capitol Hill to Fourth Avenue downtown.

TransPride, the cause of the transgender community, is newer, edgier and angrier, the product of continued discrimination abroad in society and mistreatment even at home in the LGBT community.

But a TransPride rally, on a cool Friday night, drew to Cal Anderson Park a crowd of nearly 2,000 people.

"It is amazing to see you all. What a ***damned gorgeous crowd. I could not imagine this growing up, which is not too long ago. You were lucky if you knew even one other trans person," said keynote speaker Elena Rose, a writer and religious scholar.

Kai Green, a writer-poet-filmaker from California, described twin prejudices that make for the edginess: "I think homophobia is still with us, and trans-phobia still exists in the gay community. These are two things that we have to tackle simultaneously."

Transgendered people have long been stigmatized, but Green argued that they cannot be stereotyped. "We come in all different shades of color, from all class backgrounds, from all parts of the country. There is no single 'trans background,'" he added. "It's part of the reason why the trans movement intersects all sorts of movements about social justice." More at KOMO News