Community Spotlight: Erie Trans Picnics

By: Erie Trans Picnics

Erie Trans Picnic at Presque Isle State Park, 2021

Erie Trans Picnics is a loose organization of trans and nonbinary people in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Our goal is to create a stronger trans community and build our own care networks that we can rely on as the political and social landscapes become increasingly hostile. We believe that the atom of queer family is and always has been friendship, and that community is formed through direct connection with other individuals. The picnics are as much about building a larger network of queers as they are an opportunity to experience and spread trans joy in a time when sorrow is abundant.

We have no formal leadership or direction. In 2021, founder Gwen Elaine borrowed the model from our friends at DC Trans Picnics and brought it to Erie. What started as a picnic in Frontier Park in 2021, organized almost exclusively on Lex, Instagram stories, and by word of mouth, has evolved into a community of over 100 trans and nonbinary individuals across all of Western PA. The organization (as much as it can be called that) has taken on a life of its own, with members taking leadership and organizing their own public and private events and providing mutual aid and support to other members.

Though we do not usually advertise publicly anymore, we can always be reached via Instagram DM @erietranspicnics, if one wants to stay in touch and be informed about future events,