Marsha Botzer - The Outwords Archive

Marsha wearing denim on denim, with shoulder length hair and bangs in front of a
wooden door. Photograph courtesy of Marsha Botzer.

Marsha gives a passionate speech wearing a dark suit and eyeglasses in front of a
purple “National Lesbian and Gay Task Force” banner on stage, at the Creating Change Conference. Oakland, CA, 2005. Photograph courtesy of Marsha Botzer.

Marsha Botzer shakes hands with Governer Jay Inslee, both wearing dark blue suits, October 2015. Photograph courtesy of Marsha Botzer.

Portrait photo of Marsha, smiling while wearing a dark suit with her hair in a low ponytail, 2022. Photograph courtesy of Marsha Botzer.

Marsha Botzer was born in Seattle, Washington on February 26th, 1947. She describes her early years as “quiet,” with “not much talk about being or becoming.” In 1962, Marsha attended the Seattle World’s Fair with her parents, which she calls a “remarkable” first opportunity to see difference in the world.

After high school, Marsha continued her studies but quickly discovered that a traditional college path wasn’t the right fit. She pivoted instead into a career in blue-collar labor, a whole new world that taught her about the power of unions and collective action. In 1967, she took her two weeks of union-won vacation and traveled to Europe; the following year, she went again. There, sitting atop a double-decker bus in London, she made a decision. She called home, quit her job, and “hit the road.”

Marsha’s adventures through Europe led her to various new experiences, ranging from ideas about labor activism to her first exposure to the phrase “gender change” while sitting in a square in Venice. After she returned home to Seattle and resumed her previous job with Local 32 Plumbers and Pipefitters, she spent her free time pursuing her “deepest sense of self” through conversations, support groups, and organizations like the Seattle Counseling Service.

Eventually, Marsha’s path of self-discovery led her to Dr. Stanley Biber, a pioneering surgeon who performed her gender-affirming surgery in 1981. In the following years, Marsha frequently accompanied trans individuals to their surgeries at his practice in Trinidad, Colorado. It was this form of advocacy that eventually inspired Marsha to return to school and earn her master’s degree in psychology.

In 1977, Marsha founded the Ingersoll Gender Center. Today, over four decades later, the organization continues to provide services to trans individuals in Seattle through advocacy, community organization, and education. According to Marsha, the concept of the peer-led support group is the very core of the Center.

Marsha has served on the boards of over thirty emerging and established organizations, including but not limited to Equality Washington, Equal Rights Washington Pride Foundation, Safe Schools Coalition, Lambert House, and Seattle Counseling Service. She also served as co-chair of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 2005-6 and again from 2009-10. In 2008, she was a national co-chair of the Obama Pride Campaign, and she served on the Leadership Committee for the Equality Across America March in Washington, DC. In 2012, Marsha served on the Board of Directors of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health during the development of their Version 7 Standards of Care, and currently serves as a Trustee on the Martin Luther King County Labor Council.

She is the recipient of several awards, including Lambda Legal’s Civil Rights Hero Award, the Virginia Prince Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Federation for Gender Education, the ACLU’s William O. Douglas Award, The Jose Sarria Civil Rights Award, and the Dr Robert Deisher Founders Award from Seattle Counseling Service.

In her interview, Marsha says that “the question of ‘who am I?’ is an honorable pursuit.” In her own life, she embodies this philosophy not only by engaging with it on a personal level, but also by dedicating herself to helping ensure that people around the globe are given the opportunity to explore and discover their truest selves.

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