Transcending Boundaries Conference

Last updated
Transcending Boundaries Conference
TBCLogo.png
StatusActive
GenreGender and sexuality
Location(s) New England
CountryUnited States
InauguratedOctober 2001
Founders
  • Lisa Jacobs
  • Alice Leibowitz
  • Vincent Cangiano
Attendance315
Organized byTranscending Boundaries, Inc.
Filing status 501(c)(3)
Website transcendingboundaries.org

The Transcending Boundaries Conference (TBC) was a Northeast American convention for bisexual + other middle sexualitites, genderqueer, transgender, intersex, polyamorous and other people who do fall outside strict binaries as well as their family, friends, and straight allies. [1] [2]

Contents

History

The Transcending Boundaries conference developed from a regional conference co-organized by BiNet USA, a national organization for bisexuals in the United States. Throughout the 1990s, BiNet USA helped bisexual activists to organize local groups; they also sponsored regional conferences for bisexual people. The Transcending Boundaries Conference developed from a conference facilitated by BiNet USA to serve the U.S. states of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. This tri-state area conference took place in 2000. Attendees voted to host it in successive years independently of BiNet USA, and to host the next year's conference in New Haven, Connecticut.

The new organizing committee comprised three founding members: Lisa Jacobs (President), Alice Leibowitz (Treasurer), and Vincent Cangiano (Secretary), all of Connecticut. They expanded scope of the conference in two ways: First, it widened the geographical reach to include the entire Northeastern United States. Second, they endeavored to appeal to the interests of transgender and intersex people, in addition to the bisexual/non-monosexual community. They also retitled the conference to Transcending Boundaries both to reflect this policy, and to acknowledge that mainstream cultural conceptions of sex and gender often compartmentalize their varied expressions. [3] The committee incorporated in 2001 as Transcending Boundaries, Inc., a Connecticut 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Conferences

Transcending Boundaries held five annual conferences between 2001 and 2006. In 2005 they collaborated with the Americas Conference on Bisexuality. They co-hosted the 2006 convention with the Northeastern United States division of PFLAG.

Transcending Boundaries hosted no conferences in 2007 and 2008, but resumed in 2009, which marked the first year that the conference officially added polyamorous people to its list of communities to serve. The scope of the conference later expanded to include such underrepresented groups as asexual, genderqueer, and "kinky" people. [4]

NumberYearDateCityStateAttendanceNotes
1st2001OctoberNew HavenConnecticut200Co-sponsored by the LGBT Coop of Yale University.
2nd2002OctoberNew BritainConnecticut125Co-sponsored by CCSU PRIDE of Central Connecticut State University.
3rd2003OctoberAmherstMassachusetts175Co-sponsored by the Pride Alliance of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
4th2005NovemberEast HartfordConnecticut150Held in conjunction with America's Conference on Bisexuality.

Keynote speaker: Magdalen Hsu-Li

5th2006OctoberWorcesterMassachusetts500Held in conjunction with the Northeast Regional PFLAG Conference.
6th2009NovemberWorcesterMassachusetts200Keynote speaker: Tristan Taormino
7th2010NovemberWorcesterMassachusetts265Keynote speaker: Lee Harrington
8th2011NovemberSpringfieldMassachusetts315Keynote speaker: Kate Bornstein
9th2012OctoberSpringfieldMassachusettsKeynote speaker: Ignacio Rivera
10th2014AprilHartfordConnecticutKeynote speaker: Wintersong Tashlin
11th2015NovemberSpringfieldMassachusettsKeynote speaker: Faith Cheltenham of BiNet USA

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>LGBT</i> Initialism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people

LGBT is an initialism that stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender". In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for marginalized sexualities and gender identities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pansexuality</span> Sexual attraction to people regardless of sex or gender identity

Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people might refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BiNet USA</span> American nonprofit organization

BiNet USA was an American national nonprofit bisexual community whose mission was to "facilitate the development of a cohesive network of bisexual communities, promote bisexual visibility, and collect and distribute educational information regarding bisexuality. Until 2020, BiNet USA provided a national network for bisexual organizations and individuals across the United States, and encouraged participation and organizing on local and national levels." They claimed to be the oldest national bisexuality organization in the United States. In 2020, all of the content on BiNet USA's website was replaced with a statement that the BiNet USA president, Faith Cheltenham, now identified as Christian conservative and was walking away from progressive politics entirely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisexual Resource Center</span> Nonprofit organization

The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that has served the bisexual community since 1985. Originally known as The East Coast Bisexual Network, it incorporated in 1989 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and changed its name to the Bisexual Resource Center in 1993.

The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- or homosexual people, people in the bisexual community experience attraction to more than one gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Curry</span> American bixesual rights activist (born 1966)

Wendy Curry is an American bisexual rights activist and animal rescue advocate.

Sheela Lambert is an American bisexual activist and writer. She is the Founder/Director of the Bisexual Book Awards, founder of the Bi Writers Association, was co-founder of Bi Women of All Colors and has been active in a number of bisexual rights groups including BiNet USA. She is openly bisexual and wrote about bisexuality and LGBT popular culture/entertainment issues in her national bisexual column for Examiner.com for seven years as well as articles for The Huffington Post, The Advocate, AfterEllen and AfterElton, Bi Magazine, Lambda Literary Foundation and the America Today LGBTQ Encyclopedia and editing for efforts including Biwriters.org. She presents information on bisexuality issues at universities, conferences, high schools and in-service trainings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celebrate Bisexuality Day</span> Annual holiday observed on September 23

Celebrate Bisexuality Day is observed annually on September 23 to recognize and celebrate bisexual people, the bisexual community, and the history of bisexuality.

Bialogue, a portmanteau of the words bisexual and dialogue, is an American activist group that started in New York City, working on issues of local, national, and international interest to the bisexual, fluid, pansexual, queer-identified communities and their allies. Bialogue's mission is to dispel myths and stereotypes about bisexuality, address biphobia and bisexual erasure, educate the public on the facts and realities of bisexuality and advocate for the bisexual community. Its slogan is "Taking Action not just Offense".

LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century and influential in achieving social progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Equality March</span>

The National Equality March was a national political rally that occurred October 11, 2009 in Washington, D.C. It called for equal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The march was called for by activist David Mixner and implemented by Cleve Jones, and organized by Equality Across America and the Courage Campaign. Kip Williams and Robin McGehee served as co-directors. Leaders like actress Michelle Clunie, Courage Campaign marketing director, Billy Pollina and New York gubernatorial aide Peter Yacobellis hosted the first fundraiser in the spring of 2009. This was the first national march in Washington, D.C. for LGBT rights since the 2000 Millennium March.

The history of LGBT residents in California, which includes centuries prior to the 20th, has become increasingly visible recently with the successes of the LGBT rights movement. In spite of the strong development of early LGBT villages in the state, pro-LGBT activists in California have campaigned against nearly 170 years of especially harsh prosecutions and punishments toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisexuality in the United States</span> Overview about bisexuality in the United States of America

The first English-language use of the word "bisexual" to refer to sexual orientation occurred in 1892.

Gigi Raven Wilbur is an American bisexual rights activist and writer. They have a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in social work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of LGBT topics</span> Overview of and topical guide to LGBT topics

The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBT topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex and LGBT</span> Relationship between different sex and gender minorities

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) than the non-intersex population, with an estimated 52% identifying as non-heterosexual and 8.5% to 20% experiencing gender dysphoria. Although many intersex people are heterosexual and cisgender, this overlap and "shared experiences of harm arising from dominant societal sex and gender norms" has led to intersex people often being included under the LGBT umbrella, with the acronym sometimes expanded to LGBTI. Some intersex activists and organisations have criticised this inclusion as distracting from intersex-specific issues such as involuntary medical interventions.

The following list is a partially completed compilation of events considered to have a profound effect on the welfare or image of Tamil sexual minorities. The use of bold typeface indicates that the event is widely considered to be landmark:

LGBT erasure refers to the tendency to remove lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, asexual and queer groups or people intentionally or unintentionally from record, or to dismiss or downplay their significance. This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.

References

  1. Goslow, Brian Joining Together 10 October 2006 in The Pulse Magazine
  2. "TBI Mission Statement". Transcending Boundaries, Inc. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  3. Curry, Wendy the 2006 Transcending Boundaries Conference - One Report Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine 30 October 2006 in Curried Spam
  4. "History of Transcending Boundaries". Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2011.