FEATURE Transgender STORY Elyse Wilk
No Place Like Home Transgender co-op is a model for Boston’s home-seekers in transition Ava Glasscott is on a mission. Glasscott, the first transgender Boston Pride Parade Marshal (in 2019), intends to make sure the law protects her and all people like her. She wants to see the day when everyone in the trans community feels inclusive in society. Glasscott is also the reigning Miss Trans Massachusetts. She stood shoulder to shoulder with Governor Charlie Baker and other Bay State dignitaries on the same podium where she gave a speech on behalf of the LGBTQ community. She’s also appeared in Amy Schumer’s Movie, “I Feel Pretty,” she has a cameo in Mark Wahlberg’s upcoming film, “Wonderland.” Before Glasscott evolved into the statuesque role model she is today, she traveled difficult roads and had to climb over barbed wire obstacles. When asked her to recount some of her painful stories, she replied, with tear-filled eyes, there were too many to tell, but she mentioned an employer who upon finding out she was a transwoman, fired her on the spot and kicked her out of the hair salon where she
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Clearly, Glasscott works hard at everything she does, and one of these things is outreach to a transgender cooperative that the author of this article and her husband have owned for many years. Glasscott reaches out to everyone at the coop, taking special interest in helping young people so that they will not have to experience the pain she endured.
A model home
Ava Glasscott worked as a stylist and makeup artist for over three months. Glasscott grew up in a home with a loving family, was painfully shy as a child and was bullied throughout school because she identified as female. Asked her how she overcame her shyness, she replied, “It was hard work.”
The coop is a wonderful example of how a group of young likeminded trans adults and their partners navigate their way through the difficult process of securing rental housing in Boston while transitioning. “Sam,” a documentary filmmaker from Central Massachusetts and a transwoman in her twenties, is the designated spokesperson for the co-op, which dates back to the mid-1980s. Like the others living in the co-op, Sam prefers not to reveal her identity and location of their home for safety concerns. As Sam recalls, the cooperative began as happy hippy house
