An Expired Mystery Roll’s View of the Trans March

After work on Friday, Kathleen and I headed out to Bank and MacLaren for the annual Trans March. Although I have been out for a few years, I have never gone. This is not because I have not wanted to, but I found in previous years that the semi-anonymous way it is communicated made me apprehensive.

This year is different.

Part of it is that I’ve really been hitting my stride and part of it is the rising tides of hatred. Being caught between love and hate is what got me out in the first place, and now it is getting me out and into the streets too.

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One constant is that if you happen to see me out in public, there is a 99% chance I have a camera around my neck. Friday was no exception! And because I apparently like taking chances, I loaded an expired mystery roll of Fuji Superia 200 I recently purchased from Camera Traders in Victoria.

With little clue as to how long it has been expired or how it was stored, I chose to meter at 125. The slightly yellowed and worn canister said to me not-recent, but the cartridge design was the same as any recent roll. I guessed 2010s.

As you can see from the photos above, I probably would have been a bit better off with 80 or 64. Still, in the game of “is it pictures?” they were indeed pictures and scanning negatives can absolve one’s sins to a degree!

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As for the march? It was a lovely time and my spirits were buoyed. Defiance? Increased. I have never been in such a large crowd of other trans people and it was really really something. A bit magical for my spirits.

However you might feel about notions of a trans community, I had a taste on Friday. However ephemeral and however imagined. I was also quite delighted to have the opportunity to meet other trans people I have been conversing with on Bluesky and, as a result of the march, now Discord.

Of course, it wasn’t just us! Our cisgender loved ones, friends, and parents were out there with us in a show of support and a show of numbers.