COVER STORY: Making a transition in Cowtown
Posted on 17 Aug 2012 at 9:15am
by ANNA WAUGH  |  Staff Writer

http://www.dallasvoice.com/making-transition-cowtown-10123930.html

New transgender support group is latest sign city's LGBT community has come of age


BANNER BEGINNING (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

"When I first got here, I was so scared because I thought I was the only transgender person in Fort Worth," [founder Nikki Taylor] said.

After creating a website for the group, Taylor quickly discovered she was hardly the only trans person in the area. The site drew 60 online members to the chats and more than a dozen people to the first meeting in May at Taylor's home. She knew then that she couldn't accommodate a growing group and partnered with the church for a meeting space.

"It was overwhelming," she recalls about that meeting.

Now about 20 people attend the FWTS meetings on a regular basis with ages ranging from teens to 60-somethings who are at varying stages in their transition.

Jon Nelson with Fairness Fort Worth, the only LGBT advocacy group in Fort Worth, said the group's formation symbolizes a change in the visibility of trans people.

"The transgender community has been the most discriminated against and the least represented," Nelson said. "Over the last few years that's started to change."

"I feel like my life has meaning and purpose," Taylor said. "I don't fret anymore about being an outcast."