Donna Tam/The Times-Standard
Posted: 11/19/2009 01:15:16 AM PST
As a “very-out” transgender woman, Karin Fresnel knows what it's like to put yourself in the public spotlight for a cause.
”It is terrifically important that we increase our visibility so that people begin to understand that we're just like everyone else and truly we are. We have the same wants and desires that everyone does,” she said.
As Humboldt Pride's recently appointed co-chair, Fresnel, 52, has been a Humboldt County resident for the last 17 years, working as an engineering geologist. She and her wife have been married 20 years and own a home in Eureka.
”We're all the same with one exception -- we have crossed the gender line,” Fresnel said.
This message is one Fresnel hopes to promote Friday during Transgender Day of Remembrance, when Humboldt Pride sponsors a candlelight vigil to remember those who have died due to violence related to anti-transgender prejudice.
The local event coincides with other events internationally on Friday, the anniversary of the death of Rita Hester, who was murder in 1998. Humboldt State University will be holding its own candlelight vigil, co-sponsored by the Women's Resource Center and the Eric Rofes Queer Resource Center, on Thursday in conjunction with Transgender Awareness Week which began Sunday.....
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