BREAKING NEWS: Nancy-Jo Morris Resigning from All Local Advocacy Posts

BREAKING NEWS: Nancy-Jo Morris Resigning from All Local Advocacy Posts.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
by Nancy-Jo Morris

Dear PAGE Members, Friends & Equality-Minded Allies:

By now, it should be no secret that two major assets to Colorado's Transgender Community have recently decided to leave this vast and beautiful State behind for different horizons.

Crystal Ann Gray, a good friend of mine and one of the best Advocates for Trans issues our Community has ever seen: http://crystlanngray.weebly.com/about-crystal.html  departed from Denver roughly a week ago. Why she left Colorado is relayed in detail in her own words at this link: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=109968289&blogId=538882809  Even as I speak, Crystal and her wife Shari are setting up house-keeping at their new home in northern Illinois, where she will be close enough to Chicago to receive the right kind of respectful, Trans-friendly healthcare that suits her specific needs.

Another more well-known icon of the Transgender Community has also reportedly vanished from Colorado's scenic vistas with the relocation of Dr. Marci Bowers' GRS practice from its historic location at Trinidad, Colorado to a new site near San Mateo, California. Her website reveals that a move is indeed imminent: http://marcibowers.com/grs/grs-faq.html  but as it states, the specific details will be forth-coming.

Although neither of the above-mentioned departures technically have anything to do with each other, one thing is certain - the Transgender Community of Colorado will surely feel the impact of their absence.

Now, to the real point of this Communique:

It is with a heavy heart that effective today, Tuesday, October 5, 2010, I am resigning from all of my official Advocacy positions within the State of Colorado. The reasons are purely financial / economic-related. Since my most recent (and best) chance at securing viable employment here in Colorado Springs failed just yesterday, I have no other choice but to begin closing up shop, as it were, before rent at my apartment runs out and causes me to forfeit what's left of my personal belongings here, at the end of this month of October.

I shall be notifying the members of Peak Area Gender Expressions (PAGE) of this news at tonight's regular meeting. Since I am its current Executive Facilitator, it is only right that I make these facts known there.  

I shall likewise make the Board of Directors of the Pride Center aware of this fact at it's up-coming monthly meeting, as I currently hold an At-Large seat within that organization.

The same holds true with the El Paso County Stonewall Democrats, where I am the current senior (2nd term) Co-chair.

Finally, I shall similarly stand down from my post as President of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Transgender Rights Legal Defense and Education Project.

Of course my actions will set into motion certain steps of due process regarding Transitional of Officers, within the various organization where I have been serving. But difficult as it may seem, all of them were briefed fully 3 months ago that just such a scenario would take place, in the event that I did not land a good job by October 1.

October 1 has indeed come and gone - and still, we are not saved.

Since my very dwelling-place and food have become a vague uncertainty, due to the ending of my unemployment support checks (and all income of any kind, for that matter), the very idea of trying to continue my efforts of Advocacy here any longer likewise is unsustainable and pathetically untenable.

I in recent months have seen my ability to properly serve my Community in those several positions slip drastically, such that all that has remained of me in some of these Offices is just a mere title and seat; not a powerful Advocate who can get things done.

And I refuse to be just a "paper tiger". It is time to relinquish those positions to others in the Community who are more capable of serving... who are not encumbered by the dark specter of looming destitution. 

I shall do my best to assist in this difficult and somewhat sudden "Changing of the Guard" as much as I am able. But seeing as how I must be busy about down-sizing and packing for a "move under duress", that assistance can only be preciously sparse at best.

So I therefore bid all of you a sad but sweet adieu. The last 4 years have been wonderful and victorious. My prayers are that the next 4 will find more powerful Engines and Agents of Change that will rise up and insure Colorado's future as both the Prime Harbinger and Vanguard of Progressive socio-political evolution within these United States of America!

I love you all!
Nancy-Jo Morris