Berkshire Trans Group Awarded Trans Justice Funding Project Grant
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Trans Group has been awarded $6,267.40 by the Trans Justice Funding Project to go toward programming, captioning, guest speakers, and mutual aid for and about transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming members of the community.
The Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative founded in 2012 to support grassroots trans justice groups run for and by trans people in the United States (including U.S. territories).
Berkshire Trans Group is a peer support group and a project of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, Berkshire County's longest standing LGBTQ+ organization. It has helped launch of organizations like Berkshire Pride, Rainbow Seniors, Queer Men of the Berkshires, and other groups focused on LGBTQ+ wellbeing. Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition has since shifted its focus to its Berkshire Queer History Project, which often partners with projects and organizations to expand access to queer history in the Berkshires - including trans history.
Berkshire Trans Group has served since 2017 as a peer support group and information resource for, by, and about the local transgender community. In addition to presenting opportunities to meet the local trans community in Great Barrington, Pittsfield, North Adams, and online, it is also a place where people can exchange resources, opportunities, and information on trans-friendly establishments.
This funding brings the opportunity to Berkshire Trans Group to extend the availability of cross-county meetings, which were slated to be reduced due to volunteer burnout. The Trans Justice Funding Project has also awarded enough to allow for Berkshire Trans Group to begin hiring captioners for trans-specific Berkshire Queer History Project interviews.
In addition to its regular annual Friendsgiving and Trans Day of Remembrance in November, Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition held its second Queer History Month Screening on October 24th. This year plans to address activists who have been lost to or impacted by LGBTQ+-specific marginalization, including the AIDS crisis and escalated violence against transgender individuals. If you know someone or of someone who has been lost to or impacted by LGBTQ+-specific marginalization, please reach out to queerhistory@berkshirestonewall.org.
