Devine said parades and pageants are occasions for trans women to have safe venues to express their identities. “Nothing compares to an opportunity when we can put across our self-identified personas,” she said, recalling the time she donned a dress during a Santacruzan, the ritual procession in May, because the dress didn’t fit her female cousin. “I was a little boy in a dress and everyone was laughing at me. But people didn’t know that times like that are important to our self-expression.”