Transforming Gender Symposium this weekend at CU-Boulder

CU-Boulder’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (GLBTQ) Resource Center is proud to announce the eighth annual TRANSforming Gender Symposium, Friday and Saturday at the CU-Boulder Center for Community.

The symposium is free and open to the public.

Organizers and co-sponsors are committed to addressing equality, support, visibility and scholarship for transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex people.

This year keynote speakers include Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler, a filmmaker, scholar and educator about transgender people of color and transgender visibility in the media; Thea Hillman, award-wining poet and activist for the intersex community; and Esmé Rodriguez, an educator about genderqueer identities, as well as a performance artist.

“All the keynotes are powerful speakers for inclusion and representation,” says Scarlet Bowen, Director of the GLBTQ Resource Center. “Ziegler, Hillman and Rodriguez will address such topics as breaking media barriers, exploring intersections of gender identity and racial and ethnic identity, and navigating gender and biological sex without the map we’ve been socialized to follow.”

In addition to keynote speakers, session presenters will address topics such as transmisogyny and transfeminism, being an ally to transgender people, ways providers can be more trans- and intersex-inclusive, how to talk to youth about the gender binary, and spirituality and transgender identity.

Included will be a film track of documentaries and feature films, such as “The Aggressives,” “Facing Mirrors” and “What’s the T?”, with special guest Cecilio Asuncion, director. There also will be a series of caucus opportunities for transgender, genderqueer, allies and partners of transgender people. The closing event at 8:30 p.m. Saturday will feature performances, spoken word, and music.

Legal protections for gender identity are rapidly increasing. Colorado included legal protections for gender identity and expression in 2007, and the University of Colorado includes gender identity and gender expression in its anti-discrimination policy. The symposium will help educate the university and surrounding community about the unique issues faced by transgender, genderqueer, and intersex people, and provide sessions that will address how to forge socially just and inclusive communities.

Co-sponsors of the eighth Annual Transforming Gender Symposium include The Open Door Fund, Out Boulder, First United Methodist Church, and the following departments at CU-Boulder: CU-Student Government, The Division of Student Affairs, the Residence Hall Association, Office of Victim Assistance, Anthropology, Sociology, Communication, Women and Gender Studies, and the LGBTQ Studies Certificate program.

To register for the Symposium and view the full schedule, please visit http://www.colorado.edu/GLBTQRC/tgs.html