Artwork courtesy Charlotte Transgender Health Group
The Charlotte Transgender Healthcare Group (CTHG), or Charlotte Trans Health for short, will bring together many of Charlotte’s local healthcare providers and community activists for a night of dancing, drag performances,and hors d’ oeuvres for this year’s annual Trans Health is for Everyone (T.H.E.) fundraiser. The event takes place Saturday, October 19.
Charlotte Trans Health, which boasts specialists in the field from local surrounding counties, was formed in January 2012 by Dr. Lisa Griffin, who realized the need for a varied community that would be able to provide care for gender diverse individuals. Starting out with a core team of seven mental health providers, five hormone prescribing professionals and one surgeon (all were original founders), CTHG is intent on having access for Charlotte and the surrounding communities to discuss best practices in transgender healthcare, cover complex cases, and distribute new information as it becomes available.
This year’s featured theme for 2024 is “T.H.E. Night Hits The Runway.” The event will include many of the Queen City’s local healthcare providers, who will be showcased alongside several local drag celebrities. The presentation is designed to convey the message of “compassion meets collaboration,” resulting in efficient gender-affirming care accessible to everyone.
Stepping into their own pairs of dancing shoes, each provider will be a drag child to one of the event’s selected trans or non-binary drag parents. One of the highlight elements to the night will be allowing each provider the experience of expressing themselves through the art of drag and learn from their co-stars’ lived experience as they busily prep their performances for the upcoming October stage and runway.
The announced teams will be Dorae Saunders and Carson Rounds, MD of Avance Care Midtown, Lilli Serena Frost and Rhett Brown, MD of Avance Care Midtown, Lolita Chanel and Benjamin “Frankie” Simmons, MD of Atrium Health, Nova Stella and Joe Pope, LCMHC of Joseph Pope Counseling, and Quinnty Fre$h & Jennifer Ratajczak, LCMHC of Rooted Therapy.
Back again to host the night’s festivities will be local comedian and “self-made man” Shaine Laine, along with DJ Vanna Vanity of the Vanity House.
Charlotte Trans Health’s T.H.E. Night will take place at the Diamonds Direct Luxury Lounge at Truist Field, beginning at 6 pm and continuing to 10 pm. Tickets are available now at the event site, https://charlottetranshealth.org/the-night/