In a pair of sweatpants, a colorful, shiny jacket, and his trans-pride Converse, Taylor Wold took a walk down the runway in the San Luis Obispo Guild Hall on June 15.
Currently between his freshman and sophomore years in high school, Wold was one of 18 who strutted down the catwalk during the The Body Positivity All Gender Fashion Show presented by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance’s (GALA) Queer Youth group.
“It celebrated body positivity, and I saw a few of my friends get really happy about feeling so respected and getting celebrated for being themselves,” Wold said. “Not everybody sees beauty in the same way, and everyone is their own type of beautiful.”
The whole point of the show was to give people who don’t fit societal stereotypes about gender and beauty a place to shine. Normally, Wold said, body positivity is restricted to the “ideal” body types. Most of the world doesn’t fit into that box.
GALA Executive Director Michelle Call said the organization wanted to put on a production that would help LGBTQ youth who are affected by negative body image feel better about their mental health. It’s something they can look back on when they might not be feeling that great.
Call points to the 58 percent of transgendered youth in San Luis Obispo County who have seriously considered committing suicide in the past 12 months as one of the reasons something like body positivity is so important.
“I had one person tell me that this was the first time that they felt that looked good in their body in maybe their whole life,” Call said. “We’re definitely going to continue with the body positive programming.”
SLO Tease Burlesque gave GALA the funds and helped them put the show on, and at least 100 people showed up to support, including families with chidren.
“There were a lot of tweens in the audience,” Call said. “It was really a community event.” Δ
Reach Editor Camillia Lanham at clanham@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Pride 2019.
This the feature article for the 4th of July?
Where is the celebration of our Independence?
Gail once again is a calm and mature voice of reason here. But Im too young for this luxury of the older generation so I should probably take a deeper dive. What to say, what to say… hmmm.
My immediate reaction to this is that I dont think our forbearers stormed the beaches of Normandy and the South Pacific so that Juicy Cunt Whore can have the freedom to indoctrinate our children. If those men knew this is what would become of the West then they would have unanimously preferred to speak German. If this is the end result of liberal democracy then either fascism or communism would have been a better direction.
I wonder who the parents are that take their kids to this? This is clearly child abuse. Burlesque is a sex show. Drag comes from the culture of strip clubs and prostitution. “Juicy Cunt Whore” should not be allowed near children, or in the public view for that matter. Child Protective Services should be outraged. But that institution is currently being used to take children from parents who refuse to have their brainwashed childrens genitals mutilated. Affirming gender dysphoria via public education and legal policies confuses children and parents leading more children to present to gender clinics where they are given puberty-blocking drugs. This virtually ensures that they will choose a lifetime of sterility, toxic cross-sex hormones, and unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts. There is a serious ethical problem with allowing irreversible, life-changing procedures to be performed on minors who are too young to give valid consent themselves. Conditioning children to believe the absurdity that they could be born into the wrong body, and that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Yes, this is all about indoctrination of our children. Why do you think the establishment employs snipers to guard “drag queen story hour” from concerned parents who arent buying into it? We are at the point of government mandated homosexuality. I guess thats one way to control the population.
Part of this agenda is being given rights to do things that you dont want to do and never would, like marry the same sex, but at the same time losing your rights to do things that every normal person wants to do and used to be considered normal – like raise a family on one income. The corporate media works hard to create the impression that things are better than ever before (because iToys and the scourge of homophobia is finally overcome!) but the truth is that life is getting much worse by all meaningful measures. Social upheaval is worse than its ever been at any time in American history. We’ve officially entered into a “okay, the empire is totally collapsing now” situation. More people are committing suicide, doing hard drugs and dying of hard drugs than at any time. All of this tranny stuff is happening, and children are being indoctrinated with it. Any form of open public discourse has just been totally shut down by tech monopolies, and the mainstream political parties have basically decided there wont be any serious discussion about anything. Now I have no idea how much the ruling classes’ social-engineering models took into account the idea that men confronted with this situation and with nothing left to lose are going to start doing acts of ultra-violence. Certainly, the scenario has been considered. You can read about it in think tank papers, but I dont know how seriously it was considered at the higher levels of planning. Something to consider if any international bankers are reading this.
Obsession with superficial qualities and genitals in lieu of spiritual investigation and consciousness, this is an existential crisis of Spirit and Being in the universe. We are in an explicitly anti-spiritual zeitgeist combining the two grossly anti-spiritual mentalities: the tawdry orgasm-hunting of the sex-obsessed, and the endless greed and consumer fetishism of modern Anglo-American capitalism. The synthesis gives us a third mentality which is terrified of death and the world beyond, more comfortable drugging itself into submission than making the necessary sacrifices needed to reproduce an enlightened civilization. Destroying all natural social bonds and replacing them with a desire for either materialist gain or raw sensual pleasure is reminiscent of the ideology pushed by the ruling class of Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, who have enslaved the population by way of totally satisfying their base, animalistic cravings. Again, I guess that’s one way to control the population.
“You cannot live the life of a whore and expect a monument to your chastity.” -Chinese folk saying
“It was really a community event.” If watching depressed brainwashed kids who are probably completely ignored by their parents and are calling for help by being ‘trans’ is a community event than count me out. These confused kids took to the stage with an obese man in ripped tights who looks like a san francisco nightmare named ‘Juicy CuntWhore’. WOW HOW EMPOWERING.What is this Weimar Germany? I’m totally appalled that adults thought it was okay to subject children to this. whats next library drag queen story hour where they hand out penis shaped pamphlets on how to have anal sex to children? will you care about protecting your kids then? what about when one of these ‘drag queens’ molests your kid at the library will you still be okay with these ppl being around kids? whats it gonna take SLO? why not just promote pedophilia. I miss our conservative cow town, now we live in a suburb of LA and SF and its ruining everything from our degenerating downtowns that have human poo on the sidewalks to the mental health of our kids who want to commit suicide because they dont have strong role models in their communities teaching them right from wrong.I’m praying for you SLO.
Listen to me. If you’re pissed off that my beautiful friend is on the cover serving as a role model for the local LGBT community, you need to back up. I’ve seen him become his best self through drag. He used to hate himself, now he’s actually confident. And he’s teaching others to be happy with themselves to. As for your fireworks and flags? How about walk outside? You can’t escape them. They’re everywhere! All this hate on LGBT abd body-posi events is so uncalled for. The “straight pride(ers)” and the “I don’t understand why” folks, first of all, you’re not listening if you don’t get it. And secondly, it’s not about you! You already got it good! We are still fighting for basic rights. Leave your negative, judgmental, and unnecessary comments at home. Let people be who they are and stop telling them It’s ‘unnatural’ or it’s ‘just a phase’. All you’re telling them is you’re ignorant and you don’t care about them. These events are a safe haven for them. A place to be accepted. A place to learn and get support that they’re severely lacking, a place to bloom- as my friend Juicy has. Pride comes in many forms. This is one of them. Peoe finding their truth and freedom. Embrace it.
Stephanie what rights are you fighting for? You have the right to get married, no one is denying you a job because ur gay with weird colored hair, no one is denying you housing because ur gay. How are you oppressed? If you think being surrounded by ‘breeders’ is oppressive then maybe you should move to SF or LA. This USED to be a conservative christian cow town and by golly most people that live here and that have deep roots here like it that way. Its not that I am against gays or think they shouldnt be happy or have rights I am honestly just sick of you people complaining when you having nothing to complain about. Movies and tv ALL have gay characters, HUGE media and clothing companies are aimed to sell you rainbow flag goods. Its amazing to me that you people think you need safe spaces when the entire first world is catering to your every whim. Last of all the name ‘Juicy Cunt whore’ is not an acceptable name for an adult to be using around kids. What are you going to be pushing next Stephanie?Pedophilia? Because a grown man in tights hanging out with a bunch of impressionable young teens seems like the set up for ‘How to catch a predator’. I just want to keep our children safe Stephanie. I’m praying for you.
Mental illness on full display.
#SaveUsAllFromTheLeftists
@S Carty
Your ignorance is astounding on the matter of mental illness.
Just within the past week, another long running research project confirmed there is no “gay gene.”
Choosing to be queer or tranny is entirely a life decision that has nothing to do with freedom. The 99.9% of us NORMAL people do NOT need to let the tiny dog tail wag the dog. And we don’t.