ReportingIt is the first “safe haven” for trans people in the United States. At Tenacious Unicorn Ranch, alpacas are raised while picking up queer victims of assault. The ranchers hope to make school.
The name, first. Tenacious Unicorn Ranch, the Ranch of the obstinate unicorn … “It was I who found it”, apologizes Penny Logue. A mixture of childhood memories, fantastic stories, including Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny, the mythical quest of a father who died in the land of unicorns. “A very queer symbol”, she adds. As for the adjective, it’s simple: “From the start, I knew we would need tenacity. “
Like unicorns, alpacas are stubborn, even downright stubborn creatures. There are 180 camels on the ranch, including 18 newborns, who roam in small groups, looking wacky and astonished. At the end of summer, the animals underwent their annual shearing: a fiesta called “Shear-a-palooza”, which saw dozens of LGBTQ + activists landing in this remote corner of Colorado. Harvest: 900 kg of wool, sold to fashion houses. The ranch also has sheep, chickens and ten dogs, huge Australian and Pyrenean Shepherds, named after characters from Star Trek… “We are nerds”, laughs Penny.
Penellope Logue, 40, has a two-sided hairstyle. The right side is cut very short, almost shaved; on the other, a Venetian blond or Tyrian rose river flows down, depending on the day. The activist founded the ranch in 2018, after leaving the military and beginning her gender transition. At first it was “A solo project “, she says, to disappear from circulation during the sometimes embarrassing period of body transformation. It has become a dodger after the Trump administration’s offensive against transgender people.
On her belt, Penny wears a Ruger 300 Precision. On the knee, in a holster, a dagger. Regularly, the occupants of the ranch practice shooting. “ Part of our mission is to show that we don’t have to dig deep and stay under the radar ”, describes the founder.
In three years, the ranch has become a beacon for the LGBTQ + movement: the first popular transgender commune in the United States. A refuge, a place where transgender people have the opportunity to “ build something “. “ It had always been a dream in the community, Penny says. But no one realized it. “ She succeeded because she was “Privileged”, she thinks, a little less marginalized than the average of her friends. “I owned a house, which I was able to sell. And for growing up on a farm [celle de ses grands-parents], I had rural experience. “
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