Trans H4CK-Day 3

A truism about life is that all good things must come to an end, and I awoke Sunday morning with a sense of sadness.  I thought about the fact that my time in Oakland was rapidly coming to a close along with Trans* H4CK.

The hackers were feverishly working to bring their projects to completion by the 12 noon PDT deadline at the Betti Ono Gallery before we headed over to the New Parkway Theater for the 3 PM unveiling of the projects and discover who would take home the prizes in the inaugural TransH4CK.

I thought about what one of the trans hackers told me in terms of Brandy Martell being fatally shot two blocks from where trans hackers were compiling code for apps and websites that would help save lives and advance social justice issues in our community

I took a moment on my journey to the gallery from my hotel to walk by that corner at 13th and Franklin Streets to say a few words of silent prayer for her and express my hope that the perpetrator who committed that crime soon faces justice in an Alameda County criminal courthouse.

3 PM arrived way to soon as we took our seats in the New Parkway Theater to await the unveiling of the Trans Hack projects the six teams were working on.   They ranged from a phone app that changes the pitch of your voice to a site that facilitates clothing exchanges between trans masculine and trans feminine people

Kortney, myself and our other two judges had a tough time sorting out who would be the prize winners for the initial Trans Hack since all of the projects are ones that were worthy of winning the prizes for first second and third place.

But I was flown 1900 miles to help make that tough decision, and the winning project was Trans* Resources US.

They were the first to make their presentation, and they blew us away with the breadth, scope, execution and the fact it was already live on Facebook.  Second place was Dottify.me, and third was Know Your Transgender Rights. .

Sometimes it pays to go first.

After taking some photos and watching Kortney get interviewed (he is a grad of GLAAD's POC Media Institute like yours truly), we headed to a nearby bar to celebrate the fact the inaugural Trans*H4CK was an unqualified success.

The lives of those of us who participated in this amazing inaugural trans hacking event were impacted.  Six open source projects with enormous potential to help the trans community were created, friendships were forged, and Kortney finally gets to exhale after he drops me off at the airport in a few hours.

And yes, if you're wondering, Trans*H4CK 2.0 is n the planning stages