I think a friend of mine said it best,

The energy; the power; the emotion; the butches... I feel so blessed to be present in this moment; with these humans...

The Butch Voices conference started last night at the Marriott hotel in Oakland, CA. It was the "Meet and Greet" and artist reception. I am very honored to have three pieces in the group show in this first year of the first-ever conference of its kind.

Walking into the room was an amazing experience. Beautiful, welcoming people everywhere - and I mean that in every sense of the word. There is so much warmth when we get together and *look* at one another and *listen* to one another and hug one another. ;-) And it means so much to have us all in the same room together. From the Butch Voices home page,

We are woman-identified Butches. We are trans-masculine Studs. We are faggot-identified Aggressives. We are noun Butches, adjective Studs and pronoun-shunning Aggressives. We are she, he, hy, ze, zie and hir. We are you, and we are me. The point is, we don’t decide who is Butch, Stud or Aggressive. You get to decide for yourself.

I think I felt something I have never felt before - explicitly celebrated.