Kali Disparte, 24-year old transgender seasonal firefighter with BLM/Inyo National Forest, looks through the carnage of the Donnell Fire at the Clark Fork campground in California’s Stanislaus National Forest on Thursday, August 16, 2018. The fire started on August 1, and it burned 36,450 acres, destroying 54 major structures before it burned out on October 1.
Disparte began his female-to-male transition between his first and second years as a firefighter. “As I got older, I got stronger. The more I came out, the more I got stronger and the more people supported me.” First two of his sisters, he said, “and now my fire family.”