Transgender Day of Remembrance 2011

As we mourn the violence committed against transgender and gender non-conforming people throughout the world, let us commit ourselves to working for a world where all people are safe and respected.

Updates

I have blogged here since November, so an update is overdue. My work has shifted since I left COLAGE last year, undergoing a transition of my own. It seems turning 30 didn't unlock the secrets of adulthood. I am seeking my next bold move.

In this space, I have been able to keep my story private. After years of telling the stories of my family (and others' families), it was time to be silent for a while, explore other stories, and decide which ones to tell. It seems the liberation I felt in breaking silence was mirrored by a freedom to keep my story to myself.

Fortunately, one version of my story continues to tell itself. Thank goodness for documentation. COLAGE recently launched a new website and the Kids of Trans Program has moved here.

Honoring Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today, let us remember the lives of transgender people lost out of hatred and fear.

The list is long again this year.

As countless gay folks promise us that 'it gets better', let us pause to remember those whose lives were ended before they could; those who were the target of violence because they were living authentically.

For me, as a daughter, I think of the loved ones left asking, 'Why?'. The tear-stained cheeks of daughters, siblings, parents, sons, partners, friends. The heartache and the memories, the anger and fear. The feeling of helplessness in the face of severe injustice.

In honor of our transgender loved ones and all those who have died,
Let us find the space to heal.
Let us find the courage to stand up as allies.
Let us find the strength to build a more just world. For all of us.

Trans Parent Day is November 7th - Film Review Time!

In honor of this creative holiday (check out TransParentDay.org), I'd like to share my TOP FIVE Kids of Trans Movies. Here they are...

5. The Adventures of Sebastian Cole - Great coming of age story about a wayward teen who lives with his transgender step-parent. The coming out scene feels authentic in a swirl of mixed emotions and family members reacting in different ways. LOVE the way that Sebastian comes to accept his parent and, in true teen angst spirit, tests boundaries to the max. This would be higher on the list, but I dislike the unrealistic plot twist toward the end of the film. (I'm not going to spoil it, but wouldn't recommend this film for anyone with fears about their parent's SRS surgery.)


4. TransAmerica* - Felicity Huffman as transgender woman on a road trip with her recently discovered son, who doesn't know that she's his dad. Cue Oscar music. Cue new standard cultural reference for transgender people and their family members. Complaints about this film - Why did they cast a Desperate Housewife to play a transgender woman? There are actually plenty of transgender women who could have played this role. Calpernia Addams and Kate Bornstein both come to mind. Also, I still cringe at the awkward moment when the son unwittingly makes a pass at his own parent. Ugh.
*Not to be confused with the tower in SF.

3. Southern Comfort - Tender documentary about the final months of Robert Eads, a transgender man who died of ovarian cancer after being refused medical treatment by numerous doctors. Robert's relationship with his grown son is sweet and authentic, and Eads himself speaks about the experience of giving birth. Have your hanky close by, for the tears you will shed over the loss of this man's life and the despicable barriers transphobia places to health care. I had the pleasure of attending the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta (featured in the film) and witnessed the work of the Robert Eads Health Project, which provides trans men with medical care and provides trainings for practitioners to treat FTM patients.

2. No Dumb Questions - So, the transgender family member in this documentary is the uncle, not a parent. However, this is the only film I have seen that provides an honest look at talking to young children about transgender loved ones. Chelsea (11), Olivia (9), and Abby (5) love their uncle Bill, who they are about to meet as Aunt Barbara for the first time. Their conversations are so illustrative of the girls' developmental stages and personalities. If you need to talk to a child about being transgender, watch this movie!

1. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The child in this film doesn't appear until toward the end, but the quest of the gay cross-dresser parent and fabulous friends is an incredible journey. The parent questions their own ability to be a good parent. But guess what? You CAN be. and she is. With a sweet soundtrack, incredible visuals, and clever writing, Priscilla IS queen of the desert. AND it looks like they made it into a musical!

Happy TransParent Day!!

KOT Renault Ad

This made me a little choked up in the best possible way. Special thanks to Helen Boyd for sharing!

Touchstones and Heroes

This year's Southern Comfort Conference was themed "Heroes Among Us". I have been privileged to meet and befriend many heroes over the past three years since my first SCC. Each year, I meet and re-connect with more and more heroes... transgender people who are living their truths, loving parents, compassionate therapists, strong partners, radical activists, political lobbyists, people with transgender parents... I find myself at home there. It's become a homecoming of sorts, a place of celebration and reflection of the year before. For nearly a week each fall, that fancy hotel on the perimeter of Atlanta hosts this vibrant community.

COLAGE Kids of Trans program presented another panel, featuring Amanda Veldorale-Brogan and me. Amanda's MTF dad drove 13 hours from Michigan to see her speak. She sat in the front row with her camera and recorded this video of Amanda, who augmented her own experience with her Family Therapy degree. The video is about 20 minutes long and Amanda certainly became one of my heroes that weekend. (Yes, there is some footage of me toward the end, although the 9am EST session time didn't help my West Coast brain with articulating my empassioned point.)

I have grown so much since my first Southern Comfort Conference in 2006. Perhaps more evident this year was just how much the Kids of Trans program has grown. The conversation I have with parents has changed. We used to lament the lack of resources for transgender parents and their children. This year, I heard so many success stories - from parents who attended our panel before coming out to their kids, who actually read the resource guide and gave it to their children. This is progress.

We are reprinting the Kids of Trans Resource Guide, with help from IFGE, which will distribute the 2nd edition through their online bookstore. Stephanie Battaglino, IFGE's Communications Director, and I announced the partnership at Saturday's lunch after a moving key note address from Jamison Green. I stood on the stage feeling proud of this work, it's impact, and standing on the foundation of so many heroes.

A Never-ending Gender Odyssey

This post was drafted just after I returned from Seattle a few weeks ago. Part of the post didn't save, but I am posting it anyway. In a few days, I will board another airplane for SCC in Atlanta. Updates to follow (promise)...

This Labor Day weekend marked my second year at Gender Odyssey Conference in Seattle. Later this month, I will attend my fourth Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta. I am starting to feel like a transgender conference circuit veteran, similar to a high school senior who knows what must be done while finding time to play hooky and have some fun. After all, much of this work is about relationship building and the conversations happen in the lobby more organically than in the workshop session.

On Sunday afternoon, I facilitated one of the best Kids of Trans sessions, mainly because I spoke so little. It has been my goal all along to create spaces for folks with transgender parents to share their stories. This weekend, I managed - through years of networking and a bit of serendipity - to assemble a panel encompassing a range of experiences. It worked so well that most questions could be answered in the first person. Now that is a good panel.

They Say It's Your Birthday

Today, I turn 29. It's been quite a while since I've blogged, busy with life and more private written reflections. Birthdays have always been an opportunity for self-reflection, the late summer new year to look back and ahead, take stock, and set some goals. I also indulge in this activity on January 1. Like clockwork, Jan 1 to Aug 13 to Jan 1, cycling through on this path of becoming my adult self. 

January's endeavor carries a slogan; this year is Sustainable Self. I blogged about this intention eight months ago and it has taken most of the year to really feel it. Upon today's reflection, I am succeeding at aligning my choices with a more peaceful, fulfilling, and (yes) sustaining lifestyle. 

Last week, while many COLAGErs attended the annual Family Week in Provincetown, MA, I stayed in San Francisco, having made the decision to 'retire' from six summers of volunteer facilitation. I was busy planning for Bay Area and Kids of Trans activities for the school year. As I registered for Gender Odyssey and Southern Comfort - two transgender conferences both held in September, I felt a sense of excitement that has been missing from my more recent work. It occurred to me that, for the first time in recent memory, I am not burnt out. A simple realization, but one that will guide me in my choices around work and life. Note to self: down time is a necessary component to sustainability. 

I am taking more time for me, working just one part-time job, living on less, and rethinking the difference between scarcity and abundance. Life is good. 

On this anniversary of my birth, I feel so loved and prepared for another year of compassionate living. 

Today is Blogging for LGBT Family Day

I really like when LGBT doesn't mean same-sex couples only, when the T is part of the conversation.

This essay "My Impossible Father" on Bilerico Project written by a young son talking about his transgender MTF father. Jillian T. Weiss posted it in honor of the day.

I love his description of transition along with his father.

We both underwent changes in our time apart; I sprouted into adolescence while she transformed into a woman. Each time I saw her she had transformed more and more into a woman. By the time I was ten years old, and began to understand the world, my father was comfortably a woman, and I was comfortable with her as a woman.

My relationship with my father has molded me to who I am today. The lessons I draw from my father include those about gender, but largely influence my life in ways only a father can. I learned tolerance, patience, and acceptance from my father's transformation but more importantly she instilled in me a fundamental tolerance for the unknown as well as vigorous passion to find that which I love, not that which provides momentary satisfaction.

I imagine this passage resonates with anyone who has witnessed the transition of a parent, or any loved one. We need to share our stories.

Star Struck at GLAAD Media Awards

Saturday evening, I had the opportunity to meet these lovely women on the red carpet of the 20th annual GLAAD Media Awards here in San Francisco.

I was on the media side of the velvet rope, holding the microphone as Melissa Regan and I explained NoDumbQuestions.org (an online space to share stories of lgbtq and ally experiences) before asking each celeb to share a 2-minute version of their coming out story. Most followed with a scripted 'I'm (lgbtq/ally celebrity), tell your story at nodumbquestions.org.' Stay tuned.

Calpernia Addams and Laverne Cox (above) shared the honor of Outstanding Reality Show award for the shows Transamerican Love Story and I Want to Work for Ditty. They were both stunning in person and had great brief stories to tell. What is so impressive about these women is the work they have each done for transgender visibility, far beyond the reaches of Logo or VH-1.

Also on the red carpet was Wilson Cruz, who I'll always remember as Ricky from My So-Called Life. He was so sweet and I was flustered. Apparently, he was the first openly gay teenager on television. He's done a lot since then and soon a short version of his story will be on our site! Like, whoa.

As more attendees graced our presence, my excitement kept building. Meeting Chad Allen took me back to middle school. I couldn't help thinking of Saturday nights watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. This teen heart-throb turned gay activist shared a touching story about coming out to his parents.

Another huge highlight was meeting Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for writing Milk. His acceptance speech brought me to tears, so I was nearly speechless when he agreed to share a few minutes of his own story.

The common theme of all of these celebrities' sound bites was simple: the importance of living authentic lives, coming out about who you are in order to change hearts and minds. Some of them moved me in under 60 seconds. We can tell our own short stories
and broadcast ourselves, weaving together across the world wide web. Because we all have a story to tell. Technology is making it more possible to share these stories, so that Dustin Lance Black's acceptance speech can intermingle with Morgan Green's account of her father's transition. So we celebrate the power of media.

Gay Marriage in New England

This summer, I will travel home to Vermont for another wedding on the shores of Lake Bomoseen, the largest lake entirely within the state's borders. Two of my cousins were married on this lake with beautiful outdoor summertime ceremonies. Both weddings inspired me as gatherings of friends and families celebrated love and commitment. This July, I will see my childhood friend get married on this lake... a lake where I spent so many summer days in the water, so many nights staring at the stars, and a long summer working as a park ranger at the state park.

When the Vermont State Legislature overrode Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of same-sex marriage law a few weeks ago, I thought of Lake Bomoseen. Always a proud Vermonter, I am elated to know that I could someday marry my love on the shores of Lake Bomoseen... regardless of that person's gender.

Today, New Hampshire became the fourth New England state to legalize same-sex marriage. I love my life in California, but the couples and families I know in New England -- families like mine -- now have rights that we in California lack. Sadly, New Hampshire killed a gender non-discrimination bill, meaning that gays can marry but gender non-conforming folks remain unprotected. I would rather have gender protections than marriage. Let's hope that once we win full marriage equality, those activists mobilized by gay marriage shift their energy and resources to address the many other inequalities impacting our communities.

UPDATE 5/11/09: Add Maine to the list! Out of the four states I've lived in (Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and California), all but one have marriage equality. Come on, California, let's overturn Prop 8!

Activism 2.0

As I've mentioned, one of my current projects is NoDumbQuestions.org. I've been working with filmmaker Melissa Regan, producer/director of the Sundance award-winning film No Dumb Questions, to develop an online community inspired by the film. With new technologies, it is easier than ever to harness the power of the internet share our stories to change hearts and minds. (My inner geek gets really jazzed every time I think about this!)

We are hosting our first major virtual event next week, the National LGBT Equality StorySummit. This free online training will feature major LGBT activists Kate Kendell (NCLR), Lisa Mottet (The Task Force), Andy Marra (GLAAD), Jasper Hendricks (National Black Justice Coalition) and others talking about the power of online storytelling.

YOU are invited! Just register on the site and log on from your home computer (or call in from your telephone).

Here is the invitation:



MORE INFO & REGISTER NOW at NoDumbQuestions.org.

As LGBTQ people, family, or allies, one of the most powerful tools we have for achieving LGBTQ equality is our stories. But how?

Join LGBTQ equality, storytelling, and technology leaders on Wednesday, April 22 - from any computer or telephone - for the first ever National LGBTQ StorySummit. You'll be part of a groundbreaking conversation about the state of the movement, why it is so critical that we share our stories, and tips for how to tell, record, and use Web 2.0 technologies to share your own personal story.

Join us Wednesday April 22
6-7:30pm Pacific/9-10:30pm Eastern Time
from any computer or telephone.

***Space is limited! Register TODAY: NoDumbQuestions.org***

Something's Bubbling Up Inside of Me

So sings Department of Eagles, whose album has become my most recent soundtrack for life. (Thanks to Brian for yet another musical introduction.) I'm sipping on revelation and stewing in reflection.

On Thursday, I attended the rally/jumbotron screening of the opening arguments over repealing Prop 8 before the California Supreme Court. Inspired by the No Dumb Questions StoryHub project, I brought a video camera and interviewed a young man about his opposition to gay marriage. As he shared his perspective, I was struck by the power of documentary film making. Rather than engaging, I was able to just listen and observe, keeping my own beliefs to myself for once. If we are able to actually hear one another in our differing views, perhaps we can find a bit of common ground.

Today, I sat outside a favorite cafe in my neighborhood, reading bell hooks and drafting a press release on an upcoming COLAGE Bay Area Panel. Spending much of my time in cafes affords rich opportunities for eavesdropping. A small group of college students were reading to each other about lesbian motherhood, then continued their discussion of transnational identity, family, and queerness. As someone who tends to engage more than she observes, I am discovering the value of just listening.

I discovered this quote by Mimi Nguyen that resonated tonight:

It's impossible, after all, to imagine that "queer" only skews gender and sexuality, and not race or class or nation, as if we might line up our social categories like cans in a cupboard, as if they weren't just intersecting but mutually constituitive.

I am forever grateful for the ways that life continues to illuminate these intersections.

Remembering Lawrence King, One Year Later

On February 12, 2008, Lawrence King was shot by a classmate in Oxnard, California. We all deserve to learn and live in peace. Here are a few memorials...

Memorial from Lawrence's family,

GLSEN and LOGO --

Note: Lawrence King was targeted based on gender expression AND sexual orientation.

Another gay teen --


Take action --
Safe schools for all! Contact GLSEN, start or support a GSA in your local school, act against violence!

'I'm a man and I'm pregnant. It happens...

Don't you read the fucking tabloids?', says Max - The L Word's resident trans man. Despite what Oprah may think, Thomas Beattie is NOT the only transgender man to become
pregnant. In true soap opera fashion - or perhaps Law and Order's 'ripped from the headlines' approach - this often problematic though strangely addictive
lesbian drama is bringing a pregnant trans man to life through Daniella Sea's occasionally believable performance.

I can only imagine what sort of transphobic crap is going to come out
of other character's mouths over this - not to mention fan sites.
Interesting that people assumed that Tom and Max would only have 'gay sex', and frustrating that people would say they are actually straight for having vag sex. Sounds suspisciously like the 'not a real man' sentiment that exploded over Thomas Beattie's media blitz.

The basic storyline -- Max is a gay man, who has been having unprotected vaginal sex with his boyfriend and now is four months pregnant. Max discovers his pregnancy during a consultation for top surgery. Not only must he postpone surgery, but he's apparently one month into the second trimester and is refused an abortion. Will Max be 'the pregnant man with unrealistic facial hair'? (Stay tuned.)

This scene from Max's visit to a clinic in particularly noteworthy:

Yeah, men do get pregnant sometimes. I've been meaning to write something about Thomas Beattie, about the fact that he isn't the first (or only) pregnant man, about his exploitation of his own pregnancy and process of family formation. It's disappointing that Beattie doesn't seem to acknowledge that there are so many other transgender parents in the world. Because, actually, the fact that the world knows that transgender people have children is a good step in the right direction. Too bad he hasn't leveraged his time speaking into the big media megaphone to provide a bit more justice for all of our families. But, here's the thing - Thomas Beattie isn't an activist for our community, as much as we may wish it so. And maybe it's fine, because the rest of us are doing so much. A little visibility can go a long way.

Upon return from an incredible week at Creating Change in Denver, a few days before a trip to DC for the International Foundation for Gender Education's annual conference, my head is filled with thoughts of social justice and collective liberation, of 501c3 organizations and professional queers. Tonight, though, The L Word gave me more than women making out... lest we forget, the power of pop culture.

NOTE: I drafted this post before my trip to IFGE in DC, where I found myself discussing this episode countless times. My dear friend Ramzi, a scholar in American Studies, is a pop culture junkie and seeing him during my trip further highlighted just how these forms of culture reflect and inform our ability to articulate lived experience.

Sustainable Nation, Sustainable Self

During President Obama's Inaugural speech yesterday, he made a great request to our nation:

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America. For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.

These words resonated with my 2009 slogan - Sustainable Self - a commitment to do the work on myself to live a better life with the goal of working to create a better world.

This passage also reminded me of the illustrious Hedwig's song on the same theme:

Liberating My Desires

This year began for me in Boston, with intentions to finish my Kids of Trans Fellowship, apply to social work school, and return to the east coast within a few months. This year will end for me in San Francisco, reflecting on the many lessons that accompanied the last twelve months of living. I wrote a book this year, the book ten years in the making. It isn't perfect... neither am I.

This year's slogan was 'liberate your desires', which supplanted 'all systems go' part way through January. As my dear friend says, It's never too late to change your mind. So, I did.

Liberating my desires this year meant:
letting go
allowing myself to not know what's next
making mistakes
giving myself permission to change
bringing more of myself to the spaces i inhabit
celebrating successes, while acknowledging the long path ahead
trusting that everything will work out
accepting that good living takes work (and it's worth it)
loving my friends and family, on both sides of the country
being truly blessed by the many generous and caring people in my life

Thank you for supporting my work, being my friend, and caring enough to read my blog.

Happy New Year!

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Thursday, November 20th was the Transgender Day of Remembrance. GLAAD asked people to answer the question "What does Transgender Day of Remembrance mean to you?" Here is my response:


During the Transgender Day of Remembrance service, we are reminded – these people are children, siblings, parents, friends, and lovers. As we read the names, I think of the mother mourning her transgender child’s death, the brother who will never understand how someone could take his sibling’s life. There is a small child whose parent committed suicide, an adult whose parent died because the doctors refused treatment. I don’t know their names, but anti-transgender violence has taken their family members.

In this moment, I find sadness. In this moment, I find rage.

Then, my thoughts turn to the transgender people in my life. I picture my father and her partner, the peaceful life they have pieced together in the small town surrounded by mountains. Grateful that they have a place to live, that she has a job. They are less vulnerable than many of those on the TDoR list, but still the fear creeps in. I could be that family member, holding a picture at the vigil. This year, I am not. I say a little prayer that my loved ones – family and friends – live free from violence.

In this moment, I find sadness. In this moment, I find rage.

While marching through San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, I meet a woman whose name could have been on the memorial list. She tells me her story of surviving stab wounds and being left at Ocean Beach, of the children who found her there, of her recovery just two years ago. And she is marching next to me, holding a candle just like mine.

In this moment, I find perseverance. In this moment, I find hope.

May this compassionate rage fuel our collective efforts to recreate a world where people live free from violence and discrimination.

Reflecting in a Moment of Change and Frustration

I realized on Wednesday that I'd been holding my breath for weeks, hoping that the collective power of grassroots organizing in America would win at the polls. In my decade-long experience as a voter in this country, I had reason to be skeptical. After all, my first opportunity to vote for president resulted in voter fraud in Florida and the Bush regime. I remember thinking, 'How bad could it really get?' and within a year, it was pretty obvious.

In 2004, I was living in Boston during the Kerry campaign. In the face of the Iraq War and so much injustice, many of us figured that Bush just had to lose. Instead, we had another close election resulting in a so called 'mandate' for a second-term president who should've never been elected. My good friend Bonnie and I visited Copley Square on election night to join with throngs of damp broken-hearted Kerry supporters. The day after the election, I saw Antibalas perform at The Middle East in Cambridge. We danced our pain and frustration out, realizing that millions of Americans actually believed those campaign lies.

All this is to say that I am used to being broken-hearted the day after election day, needing to be angry and sad, take care of myself and my community, and reflect on next steps.

Last Tuesday, I gathered with friends in San Francisco to watch the returns come in. Many of us spent part of the day near polling places reminding people to vote no on proposition 8. There was a nervous energy all afternoon. When I voted earlier that day, I was disgusted by the ballot question - 'Proposition 8 - Eliminates the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry'. I should NEVER be able to vote on whether to eliminate another person's rights. But, I suppose it happens all the time, just in less obvious language.

As an east coast transplant, it's strange to see the results of the rest of the country before the polls close here. I am grateful for the delay, because it gave us about 45 minutes to truly celebrate Obama's victory before California precincts started reporting the bad news.

We sat together, snuggling and crying at Obama's speech, overcome with a momentous sense of hope and history. Yes.We.Can.

As President-Elect Obama told the story of the 104-year old African-American woman who cast her vote that day, the banner showed the first returns. We tensed, unready to move from this moment of victory. A little over 50% had voted to ban gay marriage - 52% in the final count. We were still hopeful, but tinged with a strange feeling of homophobia on a broad scale.

I am still so proud to live in a country that elected Barack Obama as its 44th president. This is the beginning of a new era and part of it is a nuanced mix of victory and injustice. I've grown used to trusting that every decision of the Bush administration is a bad one. Moving forward, I know I cannot trust the Democrats to always make good decisions. This means paying closer attention, keeping social justice at the forefront of my mind and my work.

As a member of the LGBT movement, a queer person, and a resident of California, I am outraged and saddened by the passage of Proposition 8. I took to the streets with thousands of San Franciscans on Friday to protest. Check out my radio report on Flashpoints here (it's about half way through the broadcast). While we need to get outraged to heal, this is not the time to scapegoat those who voted for the bill - regardless of their race, faith, or age - but rather a time to move forward. We must look beyond the fight for marriage equality.

I have been deeply inspired by some of the conversations some of us in the queerspawn community are having. As a community existing at the intersections of oppression, homophobia and transphobia is an oppression we all face. My goodness, we have some powerful things to say from this vantage point. Here is part of the COLAGE statement:

COLAGE calls on our members and allies to stand up against the scapegoating of voters of color in the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Some have publicly stated that the African American vote tipped the scales against marriage equality in California. African Americans represent only 6% of the CA population, while Anglo Americans represent 47% of the state population. This means that the majority of people who voted for Proposition 8 are white. Let's reject racist scapegoating. Affirming racism while standing up against homophobia is never productive and lashing out against those who voted for Proposition 8 will not help educate or raise awareness to move our society forward.

It really bothered me to see visibly white protesters wearing 'Second Class Citizen' t-shirts at the march on Friday. There are many people in this country who are treated like second class citizens. While all of us should have access to the institution of marriage, their claim overlooks the various privileges enjoyed by many white, middle-class, able-bodied citizens working for equal marriage rights.

We much use our voices at this critical moment, even if it's hard to know what to say. I vow to be more outspoken in the coming months. After all, I AM the child of LGBTQ parents. Those who voted for Prop 8 did NOT have my best interests in mind. AND there is so much more to equality beyond my right to marry a woman in California.

May we seize this feeling of hope to truly bring change to our communities.

Connecting the Dots

In the past three weeks, I've been privileged to attend three very different - yet, in my world connected - conferences. Two were held in the Bay Area - CR10 and Teaching 4 Social Justice - and reminded me, yet again, how lucky I am to live here. I am so grateful for the access to brilliant radical spaces, where I am challenged to make connections between the work I've been doing and the critical work of others. How truly inspiring and, for an experiential learner like myself, necessary to moving forward. Embracing an analysis from in the intersections of transphobia, racism, and classism is vital to the future of my work as an advocate for transgender families. The T4SJ conference gave some solid tools for integrating theory into workshop development for COLAGE Bay Area. I aim to develop a more articulate explanation of how this looks, but for now I am digesting and allowing things to percolate.

Sandwiched between these two local conferences, I traveled to Atlanta for my third Southern Comfort Conference. What a celebration! More than one transgender parent expressed their gratitude for the Kids of Trans Resource Guide. They came out to their kids since May (the release date) and actually gave them a copy of the guide as part of coming out! It meant so much to meet folks whose families are already benefiting from this resource. This work feels like a dandelion that's gone to seed... I am letting the wind scatter the Kids of Trans resources through the world. I am cultivating other things now. SCC was such a great opportunity to see firsthand what sort of impact this work is having.

SCC also provided a venue to launch the No Dumb Questions project. We screened a clip of the new footage in a last minute addition to the schedule. Melissa Regan, the filmmaker, was met with overwhelming accolades from conference attendees. I'm not sure she realized just how much people in the trans community love her film. We met with Jennifer Finney Boylan after a rousing workshop on writing transgender memoir. She is quite the storyteller and was so excited about the new NDQ online community where people can share stories and ask questions about gender identity and sexual orientation. Check out the site to see Jenny talking about storytelling and share your own story.

I am working hard out here to connect the dots. I'll try to update the blog more often, since the NDQ project has me embracing the power of the web.