The reason that I attended the conference was to network and to see how I could help with passing a gender inclusive anti-discrimination law in NH. I met my goal and met many people from the state, some I had met before and reconnected with, others I met for the first time, including a long time reader of my blog, a Facebook friend. I also met a mother and child from a town near by where we have the cottage, her child is in the process of transitioning. So it was a very productive weekend.
Friday night was mostly a meet and greet, there was a welcoming and then Peterson did a couple of short vignettes from his various plays, including scenes from “Doin' Time in The Homo No Mo Halfway House”. There was also the Keynote speaker, Tony Barreto-Neto who talked about his activism in helping to pass the gender inclusive Anti-discrimination law in Vermont. One of the comments that he made resonated with me, he said that ever morning he would wake up thinking, am I going to be treated as an equal today. At times I think the same way, especial if I am going somewhere that I worry about, such as to see an auto mechanic. I wonder how they are going to treat me; I have had both good experiences and bad at garages.
On Saturday all the workshops were held, they had twenty workshops to choose from. I chose four workshops to attend, the first session that I attended was about media and how the trans-community of portrayed in movies. I attended the workshop because for my independent studies course which was the creation of a curriculum to teach a class on “Working with Gender Variant Clients” and one of the class lectures was about the media. I think that I will re-organize the presentation for that class based on what I learned in the workshop. Right now, it is organized chronologically and instead I will organize it by, victim such as “Boys Don’t Cry”, perpetrator as in the Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and by comic relief, where the trans-person is the butt of the jokes, such as in “Some Like It Hot”.
I had wanted to go a workshop also on the media, but that one was cancelled when the speaker didn’t show up. The next workshop that I went to was a panel discussion about the state of transgender politics in New Hampshire and I got a lot out of the discussion, it got a little heated at times over the fact that the marriage organization is closing now that they have marriage equality in New Hampshire. Gee what a surprise! Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah… Love Makes a Family. They closed their doors once Connecticut had marriage equality.
The last workshop that I wanted to attend was “The Legal Challenges of Being Transgender”; however, they added a new workshop on activism and organizing which I attended. I thought the workshop would be a “How To” workshop, but it was a person talking about what she did, it was a lot of “I did this” and I was disappointed. I wished that I went to my first choice.
They also had a number of keynote speakers and in the evening, Allyson Robinson from the HRC talked about privilege and how we don’t even know when we have it until we lose it. She gave several examples of some of the privilege that we lose when we transition. One example was walking in a parking lot a night, a man doesn’t give it a second thought, but a woman is wonders, who is that man behind me or why is that guy hanging out in the parking lot. She said that privilege is invisible to those that have it and they have a vested interest in not recognizing it because then you would have to act on it. Allyson went on to say that, privilege comes in many forms, race, class, and gender and for us, passing privilege (able to be not be identified as a trans-person). She said that once you aware of your privilege then you are in an ethical dilemma, what to do about it. Then she said the only way to deal with it is to give your privilege away and she listed three ways to do that. “Come Out” of the closet as trans or become an ally of trans-people. Help out, help out in support groups, in elections to help elect trans-friendly legislators, or to become an activist. Lastly, she said that you can “Pay Out” help by donating time or money.
I enjoyed the conference and I think that they did a very good job of organizing it. My only comment is that in the closing panel discussion the group that helped sponsor the conference, Trans Mentors, mentioned at have conferences in other New England states and I have a slight problem with that. I can see having conference where there is not a strong trans presence, but not where there is already a local presence. Connecticut has four active trans-support groups, one advocacy organization, two trans-conferences and one annual banquet. I know that Connecticut Trans Advocacy Coalition’s Transgender Lives conference doesn’t make money on the conference. The Connecticut Outreach Society’s annual banquet usually just about breaks even and that is only because of the people who wait to the last minute to make reservation. If a national organization comes here with a conference it could spell disaster for the survival of the local groups. I hope when they consider where they are going to have their conferences that they consider how many existing trans-organizations are in the area and try to build support where there is none now.
Lastly, the conference was covered by a local newspaper, the Concord Monitor and you can read it here.
Saturday morning when I woke up, it had rained over night and there was fog up on the mountain on the other side of the lake.
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