Trans Takeover at Creating Change

Reflections on the 2023 Creating Change Conference, part four

Angelica Ross leads a trans takeover of the stage at the closing plenary of the Creating Change Conference. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

This post is the fourth and final part of a series of reflections on the 2023 Creating Change Conference. For part one, see “Mixed-Race and Rootless”. For part two, see “Accessibility, Ableism, and Accommodations”. For part three, see “Trans Athletes and Fairness to Women”.

On the final full day of the conference, I was excited to meet actress and entrepreneur Angelica Ross, founder of TransTech Social Enterprises. I read about her founding of TransTech before her breakthrough role as Candy Ferocity on the (excellent) TV series Pose, and created her Wikipedia biography.

Meeting Miss Ross!

I appreciated that Angelica wore a mask (while not speaking on stage), unlike the vast majority of conference attendees; masks were strongly encouraged, but not required. Neither proof of COVID vaccination nor a negative test result were required either, which I felt was a disappointing and irresponsible decision on the part of the organizers.

I also met the current executive director of TransTech, E.C. Pizarro III. Last year, E.C. supported my presentation on transgender…