On Nov. 12, GenderCool Project held its inaugural fundraising gala in front of a packed room of transgender individuals, supporters, parents of trans children and other activists.
Together We Thrive: An Evening with GenderCool was held at Venue West and featured an open bar and a full buffet before a presentation featuring GenderCool “champions,” film clips and words from GenderCool Project CEO Chase Glenn and co-founder John Grosshandler.
Grosshandler’s transgender daughter Chazzie presented the first “Ally of the Year Award” to Illinois Governor JB Prtizker who accepted via a filmed segment. The goal of $50,000 was set with activist and comedian Dana Goldberg serving as emcee.
Project GenderCool is a national youth led organization that helps trans and nonbinary youth by replacing mis-informed opinions and information with positive personal experiences surrounding their lives. The “champions” at the center of the organization are transgender or non-binary youths who speak in classrooms, workplaces and in the media about their lives. They’ve also created the GenderCool Collection, a trio of books for trans and non-binary youths and their parents (authors include Gia Parr, Ashton Mota, Rebekah Brusehoff and Hunter Chinn-Ralcht).
The GenderCool Project was born when John and Jennifer Grosshandler searched online for positive stories about trans and non-binary youth like their daughter Chazzie and found only a few examples. By contrast the Grosshandler’s found a virtual flood of mis-leading, sensationalistic and negative content on trans children and immediately decided to do something about it. Jennifer then partnered with friend and mentor Gearah Goldstein, an expert on diversity and inclusion, and with five youths and their families to create The GenderCool Project.
Onstage at the Venue, Goldberg broke up the crowd with jokes about family and Kim Davis’s latest failed attempt to have gay marriage protections abolished (She cracked, “If I never see ‘little bigot on the prairie’ again I will be so happy…”) before she introduced Mota who said, “Advocacy is more than just storytelling…our advocacy reminds people that they are not alone in this.”
He closed by quoting LGBTQ+ activist and icon Bayard Rustin when he said, “To be afraid is to believe the truth is not there.”
Glenn said, “We want to create a world where trans kids aren’t just surviving, but thriving… The GenderCool Project is really fueling the trans movement…Our champions’s stories have so much power, they’re changing hearts and minds. We’re talking about making change right now.”
He closed by saying, “Visibility is an act of resistance, not just storytelling.”
At the close of the evening $102,705.00 had been reached.
