This press release was in my email inbox and I’m thrilled to see how the Pittsburgh Trans* community continues to be leaders in creating visibility. A few comments are below the release:
TransPride Pittsburgh’s 3rd National Conference Sept. 12th – 13th
Pittsburgh, PA, September 12, 2014: TransPride Pittsburgh, the cities leading advocacy group for the transgender and gender variant community announces the keynote speakers and featured performers for our 3rd Conference and Talent Showcase. The conference will be held Friday, September 12th through Sunday, September 14th at First United Methodist Church, 5401 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh. The Talent Showcase will be Saturday, September 13th, 7:00 PM at Cruze Bar, 1600 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh.
The weekend starts on Friday night with a Meet and Greet followed by Friday’s Keynote by Pittsburgh’s own Dr. Draion Burch. Saturday morning starts off with a Keynote by Brynn Tannehill, writer for OutServe magazine, The New Civil Rights Movement, Queer Mental Health and a featured blogger on huffingtonpost.com. Local speakers will pack the rest of Saturday with two tracks of presentations and the conference will finish up with a Keynote by Dana Beyer, Executive Director of Gender Rights Maryland and also a featured blogger on huffingtonpost.com.
Saturday night wraps up at 7:00 PM with a talent showcase including drag, burlesque and live music at Cruze Bar on Smallman St. Featured performers include Chance Encounters, Shane FulDesires, Malcum Tent, The Cleveland Kings and Girls, Teddy Micheals, musical group ‘Jude and the Last Drop’ and many more.
Sunday morning at 10:00 AM there will be a brunch at Ritter’s Diner on Baum Boulevard and a non-denominational spiritual service at First United Methodist Church starting at 11:00 AM.
The conference is free and open to anyone interested in sharing and learning about the transgender and gender variant community, donations gladly accepted. All donations will go to offset the cost of the conference and activities. The talent showcase has a suggested donation of $5. More information may be found on the Transpride Pgh Website or here on the Transpride Pgh blog .
TransPride Pittsburgh seeks to strengthen existing communities of gender non-conforming, Trans* individuals as well as create sustainable networks through cooperative educational, social programs and events.TransPride Pittsburgh is committed to empowerment of Trans* identified persons, their partners, allies and friends. TransPride Pittsburgh seeks to accomplish these goals through outreach and partnership with other members of the community. TransPride Pittsburgh is committed to equal rights and equal access to all with a primary focus on Trans* identified individuals and addressing their specific needs.
Notice the use of “Trans*” in their release above. I first came across this designation a while ago, and found an explanation here.
Trans* is an umbrella term that refers to all of the identities within the gender identity spectrum. There’s a ton of diversity there, but we often group them all together (e.g., when we say “trans* issues). Trans (without the asterisk) is best applied to trans men and trans women, while the asterisk makes special note in an effort to include all non-cisgender gender identities, including transgender, transsexual, transvestite, genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, genderfuck, genderless, agender, non-gendered, third gender, two-spirit, bigender, and trans man and trans woman.
The origin behind the asterisk, as I understand it, is a bit computer geeky. When you add an asterisk to the end of a search term, you’re telling your computer to search for whatever you typed, plus any characters after (e.g., [search term*][extra letters], or trans*[-gender, -queer, -sexual, etc.]). The idea was to include trans and other identities related to trans, in the most technically awesome way. I <3 Geekdom.
There have been numerous stories and incidents this past year that display tension and divisiveness within the whole of the LGBTQA community when it comes to trans* inclusion ranging from the controversy raised by drag performers using the word, “tranny” to the rigidity with which the Michigan Womyn’s Festival continues to discriminate against anyone trans identified. Individuals like Chaz Bono, Chelsea Manny, and LaVerne Cox have made visible to the general public faces of trans women and men, and as a whole the dialogue surrounding gender identity has increased.
A greater awareness and appreciation of this diversity within the Trans* community is needed especially by the umbrella LGBTQ community, where some have expressed a desire to break Trans issues apart of the larger issue of Equality. Gays and Lesbians must before it is too late grasp how their own efforts isolate and antagonize the inclusion of Trans* persons. This is seen in both big and lille ways such as those who claim that Trans is a mental illness (in my opinion, so offensive) to those who think that talking about “gay rights” is enough, to those who have been willing to accept a non-inclusive ENDA claiming that some progress is better than none at all.
In unrelated news, This past week the president of the HRC, Chad Griffin apologized to the Trans* community at large, speaking at Southern Comfort. He describes his own growing awareness of how the HRC has been blind to its lack of Trans* inclusion. We can hope that Griffin will set the stage for many leaders within other LGBTQ organizations to ask if they are inclusive enough.
To lern more about TransPride Pittsburgh, checkout there website.