We Don't Have to Be "Important"
Dispatches from 2023's Doll Invasion of Fire Island
Hi dolls, and lovers of dolls,
If you’re receiving this, you’re either a subscriber of my substack or an RSVPer of the first annual Doll Invasion, an event that we can safely say will become annual.
If you’d like to support our fundraiser, and/or commemorate the day with this soon-to-be collectible tee, Grl of Swords will keep them on sale for 2 more days. We’ll be doing a different tee every year, with 100% of shirt proceeds going to our nonprofit partner For the Gworls. Get it (in different colors or styles) before it’s archival!
What can I say? This first annual event was historicized in both Vogue and Office. Many who talked to me or the Invasion team after described it as either the best party they'd ever been to on the island, if not the best party they've ever been to, period.
Speaking for myself, it was one of the best and most fulfilling days of my life and I can't wait to continue this tradition. More than anything, thanks to a generous discount from Froot Falls, we were able to send $10,000 to For the Gworls.
Among the many highlights of the day was the doll debarking. When the dolls and their friends got to the dock (in three different waves) many of them were commuting to the Pines for the first time. They were greeted with a banner that said “WELCOME TRANSSEXUALS” and the one and only Sara Ramirez. It was nothing short of wish fulfillment.
Drag is my favorite art form, so I’m a little biased when I say that shows were likely the big highlight of my own day. We were able to take out a stack of singles and distribute them to dolls in the crowd as Cherry and Chiqui gave us compelling, irreverent, and in some cases, tear-jerking performances. Though Cecilia did drag that man for crying to a Britney Spears drag number, I’ll run to his defense and say it was, actually, so genuinely moving.
I feel grateful for the immense team that made this event happen, and that we were able to do so using scrappy principles of mutual-aid organizing to create a fiscally transparent, equitable, and autonomous process in a completely not-for-profit venture. To the best of our ability, no one was the boss, and we moved through the planning process with each artist, performer, and producer captaining their own contribution without hierarchy, prioritizing the safety and well-being of our team.
In addition to free tip singles, we provided travel stipends to everyone who asked, and drinks were completely free (much of it donated by either Naughty Pine or BodyHack). The incredible Geena Rocero and her team cooked a bountiful Kamayan dinner for the team the night before. There was free pizza/burgers for attendees, water from Liquid Death, tattoos by Elliot, weed by Flamer, and prizes by BoiPKG, Syro, and Coach.
There’s something I keep returning to about the Invasion. When we started our initial round of fundraising, which was almost entirely supplied by friends of mine with no donations from VC, trusts, or corporations, sometimes I wasn’t sure if the allies really got it. In conversations with potential donors, I kept hearing refrains of “inclusion” and how this event could be “so important” or life-changing.
Where the day was certainly emotionally impactful to much of the team, I bristle at the idea of trans community work being patently “inclusive.” We were not “included” in anything. We were not the ones being included. We created our own world, set up our own table, we engaged the money and organizing labor of allies in order to do that. The ones that usually do the including were actually the ones being included to support it. It was amazing to see how the vast majority of non-trans people who came were overjoyed to give money at the door while trans people got in free.
Though it meant a lot to people who came, but Doll Invasion wasn’t really “important,” to me. Supporting something for trans people doesn’t have to be important. It doesn’t have to be noble or charitable or heroic. It can actually just be a party, a day for trans people to have fun safely, to be messy at a pool party, dress in something slutty, do some substances, make out with the wrong people.
That’s all from me for now. More recap in this IG post, but until next year, thank you! We fuckin did it, and we can’t wait to do it again.
xx Fran
