jazz Jennings, Miss Teen Pride USA 2015-2016, will crown the new Teen Pride USA winner on Sunday, Oct. 11.
Transgender teens in South Florida will have the honor of participating in the first Teen Pride USA Pageant. The Fort Lauderdale Teen Pride USA Pageant, a two-day pageant, is the first preliminary pageant of the National Teen Pride USA Pageant, which will be held in 2016 in Fort Lauderdale.
"This is the first year that both the national pageant has existed and Fort Lauderdale will be the first preliminary pageant," said Bryan Wilson, director of training and development at SunServe, a nonprofit social services agency serving the LGBTQ communities in South Florida, and also the owner of the Teen Pride USA pageant. SunServe, The TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, and Florida Youth Pride Coalition are beneficiaries of the Fort Lauderdale Teen Pride USA Pageant.
The idea of the Teen Pride USA Pageant came together after the realization that there was no one pageant dedicated to transgender teens. "Seattle had a youth pageant and there was one in New York. It was a hodgepodge and there wasn't any one single pageant." Wilson said that part of his job and his "life's mission" is to "fill gaps in the community and meet community needs."
Through his research and work with LGBTQ teens, he said he saw even more clearly that Teen Pride was something that "needed to be developed. This is the first time in history that we have such a large emerging self-identifying youth population," said Wilson.
He is emphatic to proclaim that Miss Teen Pride USA is not a beauty pageant, but a pride pageant. The pageant categories include Presentation/Pride, where participants will be encouraged to show their pride. "For instance, I have one participant who wants to show interest in expressing pride as a Cuban American. A pride pageant is meant to showcase all aspects of their identity."
Other categories including Interview, Talent, Q&A, and Self-Expression Outfit, which takes the place of swimwear or formal wear usually seen in pageants. "We're asking teens to wear an outfit that expresses their identity."
For the talent portion, Wilson said he was energized by seeing Kelley Johnson, Miss Colorado who gave a monologue about being a nurse during the Miss America pageant a few weeks ago. "That really showed the same kind of creativity that we are looking for," said Wilson.
Day one of the two-day pageant will take place on Friday, Oct. 9, at Fort Lauderdale's Sunshine Cathedral. Day two, the crowning, will be Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 in Downtown Fort Lauderdale on Himmarshee Street’s event stage. This event (Become Pride) welcomes the community in celebration of the closing Pride Fort Lauderdale’s annual festival and National Coming Out Day at a closed street block party complete with DJ, bands, and more. The crowning of a local youth as winner of the Fort Lauderdale Teen Pride USA Pageant will be performed by the national reigning Miss Teen Pride USA 2015-2016: Jazz Jennings. Jennings holds the inaugural Teen Pride USA national title in honor of her bravery and activism for LGBTQ youth. Jazz, a transgender teen from South Florida, wrote a children's book in 2014 about her experiences as a transgender girl. She also has a reality TV show on TLC, I Am Jazz.
"When the pageant was created, there had to be someone who was an honorary inaugural national pageant title holder," explained Wilson. "Somebody between the ages of 13 and 21 and it just so happens that Jazz Jennings is here in South Florida. She agreed to be the inaugural Teen Pride USA national title holder and, because of that, the first preliminary competition will be held here."
The pageant has come together fairly quickly. It was just two months ago when Wilson started planning and enlisted the help of pageant experts, Dawn Scott, owner of Gone by Dawn Productions and producer of Bazaii, the only touring Ladyboy Cabaret and also producer of national and international ladyboy pageants, and Karloz "Karamel" Montrese, Mr. Pride South Florida. Scott and Montrese are acting as co-coordinators of The Fort Lauderdale Teen Pride USA.
Wilson said when he approached supporters, including local businesses for help with Fort Lauderdale Teen Pride USA, he had unanimous response: "If it's for the kids, yes!"
"I think it plays into our own experiences of what we had growing up. And now, wow, what a great world in which we live that we can host a stage filled with 13 to 19 year olds who are willing to stand on the stage and say, 'I'm a transgender woman and here's how I express myself.' "
It will be, however, the winners choice of how they would prefer to be identified. One winner will be named, but that winner may not be known as Miss Teen Pride USA, but can choose the title of Teen Pride USA winner. "Gender identity today is being more and more honored by youth as a true spectrum instead of male and female." Wilson, in his experience working with LGBTQ youth says when many are ask for gender identity on a form, they will write "unicorn, or male and female, or neither. They are gender fluid."
"If the winner chooses not to identify as female, they can certainly be proud to be the Teen Pride USA winner."
Day one of the two-day pageant will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, at the Sunshine Cathedral, 1480 S.W. 9th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315. Admission is $50 for VIP seating, $20, $5 for youth. Day two, the crowning, will take place Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 in Downtown Fort Lauderdale on Himmarshee Street’s event stage at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
Pageant Information: www.regonline.com/teenprideusa.
