This Week: Meet Trans Rights Voices
We have three weeks left to meet our goal of $75,000!
We need your help today to support our courageous writers-at-the-edge this year.
This week, meet two Mesa Refuge alums whose voices are shaping conversations, visibility and history about trans rights: Thomas McBee and Bamby Salcedo.
Will you support voices like Bamby and Thomas?
Thomas McBee
“At the Mesa Refuge, I worked on my newest book, which is a ‘time travelogue’ that revisits sites of lost trans counter-histories and the nature of time in a trans body. Due to ongoing obfuscation and erasure of our narratives in traditional media and archives, this work requires me to work on multiple edges: The edge of knowledge, the edge of narrative, the edge of ‘progress,’ and the edge of linear time. Engaging and embracing liminal space—these edges—is foundational to my work and my life.”
Thomas wrote the Lambda award-winning memoir, Man Alive, which was named a best book of the year by NPR, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly. His follow-up, Amateur, was shortlisted for the Baillie-Gifford nonfiction book prize and the Wellcome Book Prize. A former editor for the global business news site, Quartz, his reportage has also appeared in The New York Times, Atlantic, and Vanity Fair. Now a writer/producer, his work on season 3 of The Umbrella Academy (where he architected the transition narrative arc for Elliot Page’s character) was nominated for a Glaad award. At Mesa Refuge, Thomas worked on a book that illuminates the radical potential of lost trans histories to reimagine new futures for every body. Find him at thomaspagemcbee.com.
Bamby Salcedo
“I had the opportunity to come to Mesa and find a way to start writing. Writing is not my profession, but being at Mesa with other kind and supportive women of color gave me the inspiration to write and understand the importance of sharing my writings with others. Mesa has been pivotal in the next chapter of my life.”
Bamby is an international transgender Latina activist and the president and CEO of TransLatin@ Coalition, a national organization that focuses on addressing the issues of transgender Latin@s in the United States. Bamby received her master’s degree in Mexican and Latin@ Studies from Cal State University Los Angeles, and also developed the Center for Violence Prevention and Transgender Wellness, a space for trans people in Los Angeles. Her wide-ranging activist work has brought visibility to other critical topics that include immigration, HIV, at-risk youth, LGBTQIA+ issues, and incarceration. You can find her at translatinacoalition.org.
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Will you help us to support courageous writers-on-the-edge like Thomas and Bamby today?
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