gender questioning

Berkshire Trans Group awarded Trans Justice Fund Grant

Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition

Media Contact: Ephraim Alexander Schwartz | Ephraim@berkshirestonewall.org

Berkshire Trans Group awarded Trans Justice Funding Project grant

[PITTSFIELD, MA] Berkshire Trans Group has been awarded $6,267.40 by the Trans Justice Funding Project to go toward programming, captioning, guest speakers, and mutual aid for and about transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming members of the community. The Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative founded in 2012 to support grassroots trans justice groups run for and by trans people in the United States (including U.S. territories). 

Berkshire Trans Group is a peer support group and a project of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, Berkshire County’s longest standing LGBTQ+ organization. It has been essential to the launch of organizations like Berkshire Pride, Rainbow Seniors, Queer Men of the Berkshires, and other groups focused on LGBTQ+ wellbeing. Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition has since shifted its focus to its Berkshire Queer History Project, which often partners with projects and organizations to expand access to queer history in the Berkshires – including trans history. 

Berkshire Trans Group has served since 2017 as a peer support group and information resource for, by, and about the local transgender community. In addition to presenting opportunities to meet the local trans community in Great Barrington, Pittsfield, North Adams, and online, it is also a place where people can exchange resources, opportunities, and information on trans-friendly establishments.

This funding brings the opportunity to Berkshire Trans Group to extend the availability of cross-county meetings, which were slated to be reduced due to volunteer burnout. The Trans Justice Funding Project has also awarded enough to allow for Berkshire Trans Group to begin hiring captioners for trans-specific Berkshire Queer History Project interviews.

In addition to its regular annual Friendsgiving and Trans Day of Remembrance in November, Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition held its second Queer History Month Screening on October 24th. This year plans to address activists who have been lost to or impacted by LGBTQ+-specific marginalization, including the AIDS crisis and escalated violence against transgender individuals. If you know someone or of someone who has been lost to or impacted by LGBTQ+-specific marginalization, please reach out to queerhistory@berkshirestonewall.org.

More information on Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition and its project, Berkshire Trans Group, can be found on their website at berkshirestonewall.org. Please direct questions to info@berkshirestonewall.org.

FOR MEDIA INQUIRES:

Ephraim Alexander Schwartz | Ephraim@berkshirestonewall.org

By Ephraim Alexander Schwartz, ago

Fiscal Sponsee Seeing Rainbows granted 501(c)3 status less than month after incorporation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Ephraim Alexander Schwartz | always.seeing.rainbows@gmail.com

Announcing

Seeing Rainbows granted 501(c)3 status less than month after incorporation

[PITTSFIELD, MA] Seeing Rainbows, a trans-led art organization, has received its nonprofit 501(c)3 status less than a month after filing. Drawing from community initially discovered through Berkshire Trans Group, Seeing Rainbows received a generous temporary sponsorship from the support group’s fiscal sponsor (Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition) to bridge the gap as it awaited word of its own nonprofit status.

“We’d heard from multiple nonprofits that it took months, closer to a year, for their status to be finalized,” says Ephraim Alexander Schwartz, cofounder of Seeing Rainbows. “It was certainly a welcome surprise. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of welcome surprises come our way.”

“Everyone I’ve spoken to about this is absolutely floored that we heard back so quickly,” says cofounder Maayan Nuri Héd. “We don’t know the ‘why’ of it, but we’re very grateful to Berkshire Stonewall for supporting us in the interim, and also relieved to be an independent nonprofit in our own right, so quickly.”

The founding of Seeing Rainbows dovetails with Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition’s strategic planning. As of 2024, Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition surveyed the LGBTQ+ community for its current needs. Serving as a temporary fiscal sponsor to LGBTQ+ projects like Berkshire Pride and Queer Men of the Berkshires made sense in years past and enabled organizers of various economic backgrounds to change Berkshire County for the better. However, the amount of volunteer hours needed to continue as a fiscal sponsor regularly diverted attention from its greatest strength: as the longest standing LGBTQ+ organization in Berkshire County at 27 years, it has found itself best situated as a vessel for preserving queer history.

 “Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition has a long history in the Berkshires, but in our recent past has served as a hub and fiscal sponsor for various LGBTQ+ projects,” says Ray Garnett, treasurer of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition. “We will be in a period of transition as we move away from serving as fiscal sponsor and move towards focusing on Berkshire Queer History.”

Seeing Rainbows is the first program to graduate from fiscal sponsorship since this transition began. It is also the youngest Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition fiscal sponsee.

“I remember a time when BSCC was the only nonprofit representing the queer community and it’s exciting to see the support of our community that is enabling the growth of many queer organizations, some of which have already blossomed into nonprofits of their own. We are proud to have been a part of their journey and look forward to what’s next,” said Jason Vivori, current chairperson of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition. Vivori has also served as president, vice president, and other roles through various chapters of its life.

“I am thrilled to see the smooth transition of Seeing Rainbows from a BSCC sponsee to its own nonprofit status. As one of its first supporters, we look forward to continuing to support the important work that Seeing Rainbows is engaged in, creating and sustaining a thriving trans community in the Berkshires,” says Charlie Catacalos, newly elected president of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition.

Seeing Rainbows has launched with a slew of active programming, from weekly Trans Hikes, to monthly closed (trans and nonbinary only) Trans Art Workshops in partnership with Berkshire Art Center, as well as monthly Salons, open to all.

More information on all of Seeing Rainbows’ programming and partnerships can be found on their website at seeingrainbows.org. Questions may be directed to the entire staff at always.seeing.rainbows@gmail.com.

FOR MEDIA INQUIRES:

Ephraim Alexander Schwartz | always.seeing.rainbows@gmail.com

Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition | berkshirestonewall@gmail.com 

By Ephraim Alexander Schwartz, ago