Hello everyone. Thank you for coming.

Last year I talked about my experiences of not conforming to accepted gender identity both in the real world and in the Utherverse.

This year I want to talk about wide range of people the TG community includes in RLC, Pride month and the TGSC.

I'll start with a catch up of the year at the TGSC. Please remember it is Your TGSC, not mine.

What have we done since the last VCon?

There is a small but growing number of users of our branded version of the Utherverse Patcher. This lands you in the Transgender Transporter with four pods to Utheverse venues, four to TGSC owned venues, the Welcome Center and the Transgender Social Center itself.

We had VWW of the Day for Transgender Day of Remembrance. Thank you to Castro and the Rainbow World team for your invaluable contribution to the Celebration of Lives party we have on that day. We will be doing the same this year but with a larger Celebration of Lives with both Castro and Brianna spinning the tunes.

We have opened three exciting new venues; Transgender Boutiques, a clothes shopping venue, Ipanema Postos 8 e 9, which is our beach, and Trans World Square our street that links everywhere together. The Square has a skate park, large outdoor stage, BB's Gazebo caf�, Tali's Tree House wine bar, information booth and loads more places to dance or sit and chat with friends.

We had great fun at Ipanema on Mardi Gras thanks to Brianna spinning the tunes and Pixel Purrfect wiggling on stage.

We now have doors in Pride Alley and Virtual Vancouver to raise our presence in RLC more than just by word of mouth.

A very big thank you to everyone who has made donations in rays, time or services. None of the things we do would happen without you. That thank you also extends to Utherverse for providing this amazing world for us to live in.

The TGSC Virtual World continues to grow. Remember it is your world so please give any suggestions you have to me or AG_TALI_ASHBY.

Also don't wait for us to be there, if you want to be there just go there.

Now "Community and Pride", or maybe that should be "Community and Pride?"

The TGSC community is really an umbrella for many different people and this is where it is complicated.

We took the name Transgender or TG to keep it simple. It is the nomenclature of Utherverse and we are here for people using TG avatars, although not exclusively.

I heard the saddest thing when the TGSC started, "Am I allowed here? I am only a cross-dresser". Of course you are allowed, everyone is welcome.

But this shows the complexity of the TG community in RLC and what the TGSC community is.

We are here for straight men and woman who cross-dress, gay and bi people who cross-dress, travesti, people with body dysmorphia and people in any stage of surgical transition.

This is our community, a diverse mix of people. We don't have a single peg to hang our identity on, we are a whole cloakroom! It is our shared experiences in Utherverse and the physical world the link us even if how we identify is totally different.

We all suffer from discrimination and other issues in the physical world. The TGSC is somewhere in the Utherverse where people from anywhere can safely express themselves and support each other.

This notion of a community which isn't a community brings me to Pride Month. Do we really fit in?

For many transitioning is something we want to do it quietly, like being in a chrysalis and emerging as our true selves. For many more we do not identify with the gay or bi labels.

I looked around at the start of Pride Month and wondered what I should do to support our gay and bi brothers and sisters. But I realized they were doing it, being out there, being proud. It dawned on me that a lot of the gender non-conforming community couldn't join in in the same way.

The TGSC contribution to Pride Month has been re-branding our "Share and Care" meetings as "No Shame". I think for a lot of non-conforming people pride can be a long way off yet.

Take a straight guy who plays "dress up" with his wife and visits RLC using a TG avatar. He is much more likely to feel shame or guilt or disgust at himself than any notion of Pride or membership of a wider LGBT+ community.

In the TGSC we accept him as one of us. Our arms are open to him. He can be Her in the TGSC with no shame, no guilt, no disgust. We have felt this ourselves. Many have been on that journey from being a bit kinky in private to suicidal feelings and depression to accepting but hiding ourselves.

Honestly I don't have all the answers or all the experience. You may have the answer for someone or someone else will have the answer for you. This is why we are all equally important in the TGSC, we help each other.

Of course we do support our gay and bi brothers and sisters and welcome their support to. Pride month is very important.

To close the loop. We are all part of the RLC/Utherverse/Virtual Vancouver community.

If you have found Utherverse you can win the battle with yourself.

I am sure I speak for the vast majority of TG avatar users that we are immensely grateful to Utherverse for providing us this platform where we can present ourselves how we feel inside.

With the combination of avatar types and sizes mixed with the brilliant skins designers have created we can make a good approximation of who truly are, even if this may never happen in the physical world.

For some people Utherverse is their transition. For others it is their safe place to explore themselves. For others it is their kinky play ground. All this is OK, it is what it needs to be.

The importance of Utherverse to many TG avatars uses should not be under estimated. Right now with all the talk of change many of the TG community are scared they will loose their safe place, their "Uther-home". So if they are a bit snappy or sensitive this could be why.

One thing I will commit to is as long as there is an Utherverse and I am here there will be a TGSC!

Once again thank you to everyone behind the scenes at Uthervese and the staff and volunteers in world that keep it all running so that we can have this amazing place we call home.

Thank you for listening.

Our booth at Virtual Con 2022