Running for the Stage! Trans Resistance 2023

My name is KB (he/him/his), and I am on the Communications and Permitting team at Trans Resistance Massachusetts, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that advocates for the safety, joy, and liberation of TQBIPOC in the greater Boston area. On April 17, 2023, I am running the 127th Boston Marathon to raise funds to support Trans Resistance's annual March & Festival, which will take place on June 3, 2023, in Franklin Park, Roxbury.

Each June, Trans Resistance hosts a March & Festival in the Franklin Park area to build community, demonstrate and celebrate trans and QBIPOC joy, and actively resist the persistent, ongoing efforts nationwide to ban access to healthcare and needed resources for transgender, non-binary, and other gender non-conforming people.

Putting on the Trans Resistance March & Festival is a labor of love. Driven by our small volunteer board and planning committee, we rely on community support and aid to create an authentic celebration of Pride. One cornerstone of the event is its centering of TQBIPOC dancers, poets, musicians, and other performers. We strive to give their talents the platform they deserve (literally!) by hiring a great outdoor stage and sound setup. For the day (including labor), the cost of the stage is just over $13,000. My goal for the 2023 Boston Marathon is to raise $500 per mile–or just over $13k–to make sure we deliver a free, community-centered, high-quality event for all our participants. I'm Running For the Stage!

I'm honored that the Office of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has awarded Trans Resistance this bib slot, and to be able to run on behalf of this organization I care for so deeply. Running Boston is also an important part of my own story. Growing up, I never had much confidence to participate in organized sports–in large part due to my uncertainty about my gender identity and where I belonged. I started running casually in college, gradually building up mileage, and started competing in triathlons of several distances in 2016. The pandemic brought a swift halt to my triathlon training, and recent transphobic policy announcements by Ironman Triathlon have made continuing long-distance multisport untenable and undesirable. In October 2022, I ran my first-ever marathon and loved it.

Being a trans athlete isn't easy. If you've opened a news app recently, you've likely seen a flurry of debates about whether to allow trans athletes to compete in sports–debates that are often centered on hateful, transphobic rhetoric and that ignore the many well-documented benefits of permitting equal access to sports for trans athletes of all ages.

I'm sure many other trans athletes have run Boston before, whether or not it was known. It will be an honor to follow in their (literal) footsteps. To my knowledge, I am the first trans runner to run this event specifically to raise awareness and funds for a transgender advocacy organization–also an enormous and humbling honor. I'm running for the stage, but also as a reminder that including trans athletes in sports will benefit everyone and that trans athletes do not have any inherent advantage (believe me, I won't be breaking any records!)

Any funds raised beyond the $13k I proposed will be donated to our Trans Joy, Trans Community, and Trans Leadership Funds, which respectively help support our March & Festival, outreach and community support, and work to create a paid presidency position for a trans community leader of color.

If you have a spare dollar to donate, thank you! If not, thanks for reading and for following along.

#transresistance