Today we’d like to introduce you to Chela Demuir.
The Unique Woman’s Coalition (UWC) was founded in 1997 as a direct response to a need to have coordinated efforts to empower, elevate and add to the quality of life of black trans people.
Chela Demuir, Pioneer, Founder & Executive Director:
Chela has been a service to the LGBTQ community with a journey that expands over two decades. Although Chela has formal education as a journalist, she got involved with HIV/AIDS work after having a loved one shared their HIV+ status with her, armed with wanting to learn and be of assistance; she dove into the world of HIV/AIDS and social justice.
After working many years with LGBT community, with an expertise in Trans issues throughout the Los Angeles area and having been an employee with almost every organization that offered services, she came face to face with issues concerning the lack of access to and the availability of resources for trans people.
With a vision and a personal computer she wanted to help in any way she could, so she called upon a few friends who were willing to lend a hand in organizing a few community events a year in support of the Trans community especially during holidays when trans community can feel the most disconnected from family.
What started as a weekly support group held at Unity Fellowship Church in Los Angeles every Sunday after church has materialized as the first formalized organization in Southern California to be founded, organized for and by Black Trans women. UWC’s first efforts aimed at creating a safe space for Trans people to have a healthy conversation with each other, to have some “Girl Talk.” An opportunity for the community to gather, enjoy, learn and bond with one another.
Within a few years, this turned into a vision of having a holiday celebration dinner for Thanksgiving. A large part of Trans community finds themselves disenfranchised from their family and loved ones. Chela’s solution was to create “Transgiving Dinner” dinner with all the traditional trimmings of a full course meal, but mostly to have a sense of community and togetherness. TransGiving Dinner quickly became an event community members were able to look forward to and depend on each year.
Since UWC’s inception, community members of all ages have lent their hand and voice to the collective to help create offerings like an Easter Dinner, Wonder Woman Job Prep program, Waiting 2 Exhale Luncheon, Miss Supreme Queen Pageant, Miss Southern California Pageant, America’s Next TOP Illusionist, Battle of the Divas, Unity Games, La Maison de Van Cartier, Our Honors Community Image Awards, and UWC’s current multimedia project Chela & the Girls Next Door Talk Show.
UWC has been able to be at the table for a few historic moments for the movement:
-Established the original Trans-Unity Pride, now known as Trans Pride LA
-Established the original Los Angeles County Transgender Task Force
-Established the Transgender Youth Network, now known as TSPN
-Coordinated with OAPP the first Transgender HIV Testing Day
It’s going to be hard to mention Unique Woman’s Coalition without mentioning Chela Demuir and vise versa, as the two are synonymous with one another. Chela lived a very different life before she found community, but community is where Chela found herself and a passion. If you ask Chela, she’ll tell you “that’s where my journey truly started.”
Chela has been the spark and the fuel for UWC, at a time when it was unheard of for Trans people to be independently organized and solution driven she pioneered ahead and forged a way for black trans and non-binary community to have a voice. Chela is also known to many as a Mother figure, she has been a village to many community members navigating the world.
“Chela’s philosophy has always been to create a path where there is none, and if you’re lucky you’ll create a door that others can utilize” she calls her style of community organizing “Social Edutainment. Mixing social and education elements together to create an experience, once community is in the same space with positive energy, their open to receive messages; and that is what they call “creating a spark.”
That spark can be a flutter or a hungry flame. It’s that spark, or that message people can take away from spaces Chela, and UWC create that can lead to change. In 2019 UWC is charging forward to introduce multimedia projects produced and created by Trans people.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We definitely are faced with a few challenges, organizing community is a challenge. Many of us come from situations that leave us unable to trust or confide in each other. There’s also the challenge we face once we’re able to overcome our own challenges, and that is to find the necessary support that it takes to help our community not to just survive, but to thrive.
The biggest challenge is finding funding that would support economical security and growth. Funding sources typically surround HIV/AIDS efforts and programs that want our community to be a participant and not managers of our own.
Unique Woman’s Coalition – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our organization is a direct response to a community need, During the time of our inception there was only one local organization offering anything for us, and even that ran by regular business hours and not at all near or during holidays.
TransGiving Dinner was born, and ever since then whenever and wherever we can fill a gap, and it’s within our capacity; we will make an effort. To say what we do I would say we are about creating presence, consistent and dependable black trans presence. We call it Black Trans Magic.
We create events that allow all Trans and non-binary community members can feel safe, they can relax and have a good time. They can gain access to resources, meet our get re-acquainted with community and allies.
What makes us different is that we are the first trans led organization in Los Angeles and we’ve been able to create consistency by providing safe spaces for the community to gather for 22 years. Today the UWC is focusing on building the new generation of leadership with an Ambassador program and multimedia content to produce and tell our communities stories and highlighting people of trans experience.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for us looks like Trans people of color being positively impacted by our efforts, rather attending an event, group, workshop or watching our online content. If we can reduce stigma about Trans people, that’s also success.
Contact Info:
- Website: theuwc.org
- Phone: 650-336-8471
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: theuwcofficial
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/theuwc
- Twitter: theuwcofficial
Image Credit:
@theuwcofficial, TransGiving Dinner 16
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
