A New Rainbow

I imagine almost everyone has seen a rainbow. Its beauty is obvious. Most of us know that a rainbow is caused when raindrops, acting as a prism, break down the white light of the sun into its "spectrum" of colors. I had to look up how many colors are in that spectrum. It turns out there are seven colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. That's also the order in which the colors appear in a rainbow from the outer arc to the inner arc, determined by their individual wavelength.

Last Saturday night I saw something I had never seen before; it was a new rainbow, one with well over a dozen colors in its spectrum; and I understand there are far more colors that were simply not visible that night. This night, illumination was not from the sun, but from the lamps inside a hotel conference room and the "colors" were the organizations represented by over twenty participants that had gathered there for an historic meeting.

The eclectic group was called together by Mischelle De LaFreniere, whom most of you know very well. She is a significant voice in the Trans Community whose contributions are numerous. Among the organizations attending were Arizona TransAlliance, TransMentors International, TransEquality Arizona, Equality Arizona, Transgender Harmony, This is H.O.W., M-Spectrum, Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, Central Arizona Gender Alliance and TransYouth Family Allies. There were more, but I couldn't write fast enough to get them all down on paper. I have never known this many different Trans organizations to be in the same room together, except at a major conference. I figured there would be a lot of energy, but would it be smoke or fire?

It was fire! After our discussion leaders finished walking us through some exercises, we saw that the diversity of our various missions and directions was a tremendous strength. We realized that working on different pieces of the challenges before the Trans Community was efficient and we did not always have to agree on methods or mission to be effective. We agreed that the other groups represented were not competitors, were not to be feared, but instead complimented our work allowing each group to focus on a particular challenge instead of many.

Of almost greater importance was the realization that together, we have significant resources at our disposal, resources that could be shared and thus provide an exponential benefit to the Community. Whether that sharing is the knowledge of a sale on paper or a recent legal brief on Trans marriages, we could be much stronger, more efficient and far more valuable to the Trans Community simply by sharing our knowledge, research, experience and expertise with one another. As the meeting closed, the group was beginning to work on the mechanics of how to implement this break through concept.

The excitement was high as we broke up to head home. Each organization was satisfied that their mission and their methods were secure, that the years of work would continue as it had. But there was a new spirit, a new knowledge, and a new understanding that these organizations would soon have a means to facilitate unprecedented cooperation, allowing them to work together whenever the situation calls for it.

Take Care,

Billie