♪ driving instrumental ♪ (Sean Dorsey) Twenty years ago, nobody was putting trans artists onstage.

Nobody would present us.

They wouldn't cover our work in the media.

Nobody would touch us.

So many trans people are discouraged from dreaming, finding love, community.

And this is my invitation to you to dream wildly about your future.

Hey everyone, I'm Sean Dorsey.

Welcome to San Francisco.

Or as I like to call it, San "Trans"cisco.

Today we're bringing you dance that lifts up transgender, gender nonconforming, and queer lives and futures.

So follow us as we dream what would happen if cities could dance.

♪ driving instrumental ends ♪ ♪ lively guitar intro ♪ (Héctor Jaime) San Francisco is a beautiful place for blossoming art.

(Sean) It's this incredible epicenter of trans and queer history of resistance.

(Wendy Kohler) It really comes down to this: The inability of so-called society to let a person be what they are.

(Sean) A lot of folks don't know it was San Francisco in August 1966 that hosted riots that long preceded the Stonewall riots.

[crowd cheers and whistles] (Sean) This is a city of survivors and thrivers.

For so many trans and queer folks, it's the only place that we can live.

And I mean that quite literally, having been excommunicated from families, communities, or churches.

Many people escape violence and discrimination and exclusion, and are called here in this kind of magical, mysterious fashion.

The intensity of that amplifies the beauty of what we create when we come together here.

♪ ethereal strings and light percussion ♪ ♪ slow instrumental with foreboding pulses ♪ (Sean) No matter what you might have been told, I was not born in the wrong body.

I was born in this body-- my body.

This is my body.

And my body is evidence of a singular determination to stay alive in a world that would rather I did not.

♪ instrumental intensifies ♪ So this body is strong and beautiful.

And this body is not alone.

♪ instrumental fades ♪ ♪ meditative guitar plucking ♪ I came to San Francisco as a trans dance artist hoping and assuming I would find people like me here.

I thought, "This is it."

♪ guitar continues with added light percussion ♪ And then I got here.

I found so many other amazing trans artists.

But when it came to trans modern dance, it was like crickets.

There was me.

♪ guitar continues with added light percussion ♪ Having the painful daily experience of being the only trans person in any dance class or workshop or audition, I realized that if I wasn't going to find the opportunities and the community that I so deeply craved, that I wanted and needed to be a part of creating those.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Sean Dorsey, and I love being transgender.

♪ driving electro hip-hop beat ♪ (Sean) In 2002, I brought together a group of trans and queer artists and activists to put on an event that would center trans performing artists onstage.

The community was happily screaming and demanding more.

The outrageous applause and the tears from people in the audience saying, "I've never seen myself reflected onstage in my entire life."

♪ driving electro hip-hop beat continues with added classical music arrangements ♪ So I decided to make the Fresh Meat Festival an annual event and then expand the mission of that into what's now a thriving year-round nonprofit organization-- Fresh Meat Productions.

♪ rising dramatic outro ♪ (News anchor 1) 2021 saw a record number of anti-trans bills in state legislatures.

(News anchor 2) At least 28 transgender or gender-nonconforming people have been murdered.

(News anchor 3) The Florida legislature passed the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.

(News anchor 4) 61% of trans youth report being bullied.

32% of bullied trans youth attempted suicide.

♪ pulsing strings ♪ (Sean) We are constantly subjected to cultural messaging that tells us that we're wrong, that we're unhealthy, that we're unlovable.

We've never not been under attack, but the attacks are escalating again.

♪ strings slow down and fade ♪ ♪ pulsating electronic midtempo beats ♪ Our lives, our loves, our accomplishments, our arts and culture, our inventions-- you name it--all of this has been violently erased and excluded and censored from all forms of history.

♪ beats continue ♪ One of my passions as an artist and a human is keeping our history alive by incorporating elements of our history into my work.

♪ electronic beats fade ♪ ♪ propulsive fast techno ♪ "The Lost Art of Dreaming" is the new project that I'm currently working on with my company.

I believe dreaming is a political act and a vehicle for resistance and cultural change in a world that would want to deny our future.

♪ propulsive fast techno continues ♪ Trans and gender-nonconforming folks and queer people have a glorious place in the future, that we get to be culture makers and culture bearers and leaders, that we get to be in love and loved up and celebrated and lifted up.

♪ steady meditative instrumental ♪ (Héctor) I dream for all my trans folks, people of color, indigenous, and Black people to not be afraid, to be who they are.

(Will Woodward) There's a feeling that I get when I'm in the studio with Sean.

I feel like he goes out of his way to make sure it feels like a safe space.

♪ steady meditative instrumental continues ♪ (Nol Simonse) When Sean talks about building better futures, he's not just talking about it, he actually does that in real concrete ways.

♪ steady meditative instrumental fades ♪ ♪ upbeat electronica with bouncy keys and ethereal vocals ♪ (Sean) We do a home season, and we've toured to more than 35 cities across the country and around the world.

♪ electronic track continues ♪ We do all kinds of free classes and workshops and education programs with an explicitly trans celebratory pedagogy.

And it's amazing to be now teaching a class with folks like me in the room.

♪ electronic track continues ♪ We cannot forge the change we want to see in the world without dreaming of it first.

This is what I want for all of us-- to feel empowered and propelled into dreaming expansively... to create the world we want.

♪ electronic track continues ♪ (Sean) Thanks for joining us.

And make sure to catch more episodes of "If Cities Could Dance."

Until next time, keep dreaming.

♪ electronic track continues ♪ Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

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