Genders blurred in show

The Tranny Roadshow performed Monday before an enthusiastic audience of different genders and… The Tranny Roadshow performed Monday before an enthusiastic audience of different genders and sexualities Monday in the Public Health Auditorium.

The “art extravaganza” – hosted by Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance as just one event of Pride Week – generated an upbeat environment in which self-identified transgender individuals presented various acts, including story-telling, poetry-reading, singing and acting.

“I’m kind of excited,” said John Musser, social chair of the Rainbow Alliance. “It’s usually interesting when you’re dealing with gender and the slurring of gender.”

The performing artists revealed their coming-out experiences, as well as the support – or lack thereof – they gained from friends and family in the process.

Red Durkin, a storyteller from North Carolina, said she thinks the show is good for college campuses, which usually have positive atmospheres.

“It’s important to demonstrate to people this isn’t a freak show,” Durkin said. “And that’s what a lot of people come to see, but I think it’s impossible to leave feeling like you saw a freak show.”

Kelly Shortandqueer, the first of the performers, revealed funny, yet sometimes offensive, experiences he faced at work after he began taking testosterone injections.

When he was preparing to come out to a close friend, Shortandqueer explained, his friend immediately said, “You’re either married, pregnant or a boy.”

The audience laughed, as it did during much of the show.

Miles Jackson, a Pittsburgh native and storyteller in the show, trucked onstage with pads imitating muscles underneath his shirt and chanted, “Here we go, Steelers. Here we go!”

Jackson explained his experience with coming out as a man and his eventual success with having the state comply with his request to change the name on his birth certificate.

Imani Henry revealed his Jamaican heritage through a comical skit about his problems with coming out to his grandmother and his very Christian family.

The audience clapped wildly and whistled for Tona Brown, a violinist and vocalist who serenaded the guests with opera and violin pieces.

While some moments of the show had the audience crying tears of laughter, the overall serious message was one of pride and acceptance of who you and others are.

Dylan Scholinski, artist and author, read passages from his book “The Last Time I Wore a Dress.”

He said he was institutionalized for more than four years for being an “inappropriate female,” but finally came to accept himself for who he was.

“I think that it’s great that events like this can happen on a college campus without interference,” said audience member Darby Weaver, Pitt freshman and member of Rainbow Alliance.

The Tranny Roadshow is touring for the second time this spring, until April 30, and travels to Oberlin College tonight.