History
A History of the Trans Calendar Project, by Alex Haney
The origins, history, and evolution of our project from my perspective as founder and project manager.
The original idea was born in early 2012 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. I had begun documenting my transition from female to male on YouTube the previous fall, and was quickly becoming part of a growing online community of trans men (female to male, or FTM). After an informal photo shoot with my friend and fellow trans vlogger Val Pizzo, we joked about how he looked like a calendar boy and that I should make a calendar. I began seriously considering the idea, though, once we began to talk about how a calendar of trans male vloggers could help strengthen the developing sense of community online.
At that point in time, many of us only knew each other as pixelated images on our computer screens- isolated in our little black video boxes. Val and I had first known each other in this way and had since become friends in real life when he traveled to Toronto for my top surgery fundraiser. I wanted to continue this and find an excuse to get the computers out of the way and connect with more trans people in the flesh. The fact that we were all vloggers meant we came with a connected customer base and advertising platform. I also thought it would be a great way for our viewers to feel more connected to us as people outside of YouTube. I decided to call it, “The 2013 YouTube FTM Calendar”. 
Ro- June 2013
I had just started saving in order to finance my transition, and the calendar offered a perfect platform not only for fundraising but for focusing on my passion for photography and portraiture. To keep in the spirit of community, I chose to split all potential profits with anyone who I photographed to go towards their own transition related expenses. Half of the profits for my chest surgery, half to be divided up for others for things such as name and gender marker changes, surgeries and hormones.
The idea had come at the perfect time- it was still early in the year, and just weeks before the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference. One of the largest trans focused conferences in the world, it offered the perfect opportunity to meet up with FTM vloggers from across North America. This had presented itself as the project’s largest hurdle- how does one photograph a community with no geographical home base? I began to strategize. 
Yovi- November 2013
I started blindly e-mailing as many vloggers as I could, asking if they would be at the conference or near the Toronto area in the coming months in order to be photographed. The response was incredible, and within days I was scheduling photo shoots with people both local to Ontario and from as far away as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and St. Louis, Missouri. The Philadelphia Trans Health conference provided one epicentre, with Toronto Pride acting as another.
Over the course of the next several months, the project brought together a diverse group of trans men from all over. The photo shoots acted as catalysts- many of us in the early stages of our transitions and lacking friendship and support, they provided the perfect opportunity for connection. Usually, the photo shoot was just a small portion of the time we spent together. We shared beds, meals and stories. Many of the people involved have formed lasting friendships, and we are all still connected in some way, shape or form.
Behind the Scenes with Yovi and Elliott in Philadelphia- May 2012
While all of this was going on, I began formulating my business plan. One of the decisions I ended up making financially was to base the project around a crowd funding campaign. On September 15, 2012 I launched an indiegogo campaign with a fixed goal of $5,000. This was to cover printing and distribution of 200 print calendars and 100 smaller magnetic calendars, plus a base fee to go towards our fundraising goals.
What ensued was one of the most exhilarating periods of my life. The timing of it had been perfect because I was in the thick of the waiting process to start hormone replacement therapy. Anyone who has been in that place before will know how excruciating it is. I can’t talk about the history of this project without mentioning this, because the thrill and suspense of the campaign is what got me through each and every day. I would sneak into the walk in fridge at work every hour to check my cell phone for new contributions. And they came.
Kadyn- March 2013
Unless you were part of this original campaign, it’s hard to convey the experience of living through it. It was truly phenomenal how much people pulled through for us and believed in our project despite the fact that hardly anyone knew who I was. I say ‘our’ project and not ‘mine’ at this point because it was during this time that it really shifted from being my project, to being a community project. It ended up spreading far wider than I had ever anticipated- way beyond the FTM YouTube community that it was originally intended for. It spread to trans people who had never watched our vlogs before, and it spread to queers and allies all over the world.
The last four or five days were the most intense- the contributions had come to a stand still at the half way mark and many of the project members were losing hope. On October 9th, with less than a week left to raise over half the money, my friends advised me to start letting go. Then suddenly in the span of next two days, our donations skyrocketed. It began with an anonymous donation of $1,000 that had me jumping and screaming at work, and from there it was like a floodgate had opened. In the middle of the night on October 11, I received a text from my friend Dana that said, “Alex wake up!!! YOU DID IT!!"
Elliott- October 2013
We finished the crowd funding campaign on October 15, 2012 with a total of $6,299 and having been featured on the indiegogo home page as one of their top campaigns worldwide.
Val and Izzy featured on the Indiegogo homepage- October 11, 2012
Once the campaign was over, I began to reflect on the future. People began to ask me if I planned to continue making calendars, which is not something I had thought much about prior since I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to pull off one. I thought to myself, if I did, the audience would be much bigger than the YouTube community it was originally created for. Also, I would want to include a much wider diversity of trans people, rather than just trans men. I didn’t have much time at that point to conceptualize how all of this might change the project in the coming year(s), but for those reasons I made the decision to send the calendar to print under a new name- “The Trans Calendar Project”.
On December 10, I picked up the 250 calendars from the printer. To hold the actual calendar in my hands for the very first time is an experience I will never forget. All of my planning, dreaming and determination had finally culminated in something tangible. But it was also the first moment that it really hit me how much of the project was so intangible. It was never really about a product to begin with. To quote Val Pizzo, “The product, being the calendar, was really just a symbol of our ability to come together (as a community)...” 
Mary showing off their calendar- December 2012
The night of December 10, 2012 a group of us got together to package and address the box of calendars for shipment all around the world- to as far away as Europe, Australia and New Zealand. We shipped them from a tiny, quiet post office at Val’s university. People waited in line to mail letters while we carted in hundreds of packages marked with ‘The Trans Calendar Project’ and hand drawn hearts in red sharpie. 
TO BE CONTINUED...
Chase- July 2013
Eli- September 2013
Ming- April 2013
Val and Izzy- January 2013