This featured guest piece is an excerpt of our November 2025 newsletter.

Welcome to November my loves!

For a year that has felt like a lifetime so far, I am glad that the holiday season is upon us! Has anyone already gotten their holiday decor up?

I’m Giselle Byrd, and I am one of your newest State Commissioners on the MCSW, and the newly elected Vice Chair of the MCSW’s Programming and Planning Committee. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to serve alongside my fellow sister commissioners as the first transgender woman of color on the commission and I am so excited for the journey that we will take together. In a time when tensions are high and the path is uncertain, I know that the MCSW will illuminate a path of safety, security, and liberation for all. It is essential in times such as these, and I am so grateful to be a part of the light that is the MCSW.

I’m a Georgia girl, born and raised in Augusta, GA, where I discovered a passion for the performing arts, which led it to be my major of study in college at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Thanks to my study abroad program, I finished college a quarter early and moved to NYC, where I started a casting internship, which then led to a job in talent management, where I was for 9 years. In May 2023, I decided to step out on faith in myself and explore what was next. I knew that as a Black, transgender woman, society had its odds against me, but I knew what I possessed was greater. I had the resilience, knowledge, and most importantly, the power, to access the goals I wanted to achieve. That belief in myself led me to getting a phone call that changed my life.

In October 2023, after 3 months and 5 interviews, I received the call that I was chosen to become the new Executive and Artistic Director of The Theater Offensive, based in Boston, where our mission is to present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression. Each day, I have to pinch myself, for being able to curate and celebrate the art of my community was a dream that I did not think was attainable. It just goes to show you that anything can happen when you have faith in yourself.

November is Transgender Awareness Month, and I am proud to say that this year, I am serving as the co-chair of the City of Boston’s commemoration of Transgender Day of Remembrance alongside the brilliant, MG Xiong of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. As part of our community activations, we will be holding a vigil in the palace at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on November 20th at 7:30PM. This vigil serves as a moment to honor those trans lives lost due to the ongoing epidemic of violence towards the transgender community. With sweeping legislation to further eradicate the rights of the transgender community, I am proud to share that MCSW will be hosting a hearing session for transgender women and girls of the commonwealth in early 2026 to learn how we can further advocate for them at the state level. We must ensure that all women and girls are heard throughout this moment.

2025 has been a year of highs and lows, and as we approach the end of the year, especially the holiday season, I know that many of you are contemplating what those holiday conversations will look like this year. I encourage each of you to lead with love and be reminded that we are all living through a moment that our ancestors and trans ancestors fought for, and it is now our turn to carry the torch that they left lit for us. Activate yourselves and your loved ones to help create the world you wish to see. Let it be a liberated world where no one goes without. Where our young people have access to equal education, where reproductive justice is not a debate, where the rights of queer and trans people are not selective, where freedom of speech is not threatened (nor any of our rights), and a world where liberty and justice for all applies to all people – and not just a select few.

Amidst this government shutdown, I know firsthand how it can be difficult to navigate. While the state of Massachusetts and respective cities have come in with support, I encourage all of you, if you can, to find ways to support those going through the unimaginable. Perhaps you encourage your friends to get together and do a clothing drive as we start creeping into the New England winter. There are many ways to help care for your community during this time of year, and I say, let’s get creative and take care of one another in the spirit of celebrating the beauty of each other’s humanity.

I remain committed to it and I hope that you do as well.

Sending much love and light your way,

Giselle Byrd
MCSW State Commissioner

Giselle Byrd is the Executive Director of The Theater Offensive, located in Boston, MA, making her the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theatre company in the United States. There, she is passionately continuing and amplifying the theater’s mission for uplifting and elevating the work of queer and transgender artists of color and LGBTQIA2S+ youth and their allies. As a producer, she holds the honor of being the first transgender woman to be accepted into Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program. Her documentary film debut, “Giselle’s Story,” directed by Susan O’Brien, was accepted into the Imagine This International Women’s Festival. Her subsequent film, “When We Arrive As Flowers,” executive produced by Alexandra Billings, went on to receive acceptance into numerous film festivals throughout the country.

Read our November 2025 Regional Spotlight