At a community building in the small town of Port Townsend, Washington, the cast of “Queer Survival Quest” is gathering before tonight’s play. Mel Edwards, 22, puts on eyeliner. Max Stewart, 14, hands out pretzels. Jax DeLuna, 19, has brought a blanket. He groans and drags himself to a quiet corner. Last night’s performance was three hours long, and tonight’s will be, too.
Seven young people, ages 14 to 23, are all transgender (an “umbrella term,” the program explains, “for any gender identity that differs from the one associated with the sex assigned at birth”). They’re putting on a piece of public interactive theater to immerse the community in the challenges they face as transgender individuals at their schools, at the county hospital, and at home.
In the process, it also allowed others to see the youth actors not just as transgender, but as happy individuals living complex lives that can’t be reduced to a simple label.
[For more on this story by Sammi-Jo Lee, go to http://www.yesmagazine.org/pea...ange-policy-20171106]
Photo: Cast members of “Queer Youth Survival Quest” form an interpretive tableau on stage in Port Townsend, WA in September 2017 featuring Sam DeLuna, Micah DeLuna, Max Stewart, Eamon Redding, Jax DeLuna, Mel Edwards, Liv Crecca (bottom). Photo by Sammi-Jo Lee.
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