Speedy recovery to Rep. Raúl Grijalva!

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Tucson) was scheduled to attend today’s Town Hall meeting on “Why is Tucson such a transgender friendly city?” but unfortunately he is not feeling well. IFGE 2008 and SAGA send our best wishes to him for a quick recovery!

KUAT TV: “Tucson considered an accepting community”

Here is the KUAT video on IFGE 2008, featuring interviews with Jamison Green, IFGE 2008 plenary speaker and workshop presenter, and Erin Russ, SAGA member and IFGE 2008 conference coordinator:

There’s a cameo by Tucson’s LGBT-friendly, Republican (!) mayor Bob Walkup, and if you look carefully you can even spot quick shots of attendees. We spotted Amanda Simpson — did you?

Lori Anne Davis: “A Time to… Catch Up”

IFGE 2008 photographer Lori Anne checks in today:

This will be interesting.  I’m running on about two hours of sleep.  In fact, Marie caught me with my Macbook on my lap as I slept.  It’s a good thing that I didn’t roll over.  My incandescent demeanor would not have made me a pleasant person to be around.

That being said.  I really don’t have enough steam to type much this morning.  I have been taking quite a few photos (cough cough) of the conference.  I’ve been posting a few of the personal ones on my flickr page.  You can view them HERE.  I upload them to flickr daily.  As for the other 2000 photos, well, that may take some time to go through.

Since the last video blog, several events, a lot of laughs, a HELLUVA lot of tears, and even an ongoing joke about transgendered chicken (more on that later …bo-cooockk!) has made this conference more than just interesting.

Be sure to check out her great photography. The rest of her post reflects the types of feelings that all people can struggle with at times, but transgender people in particular. Lori has a great a gift for communicating her own fears and hopes in ways that everyone can relate to — as seen in her stint as a regular columnist for the short-lived Tucson LGBT newsmagazine Colorez!.

geekbynature: “Day 167″

Jason, an FTM blogger who writes at the blog “… i am, therefore i am …” has been at the IFGE conference for several days now:

Today, my mother and I depart for home. We have been now three days at the IFGE conference, which I must say has been so far one of the highest on my list of most neutrally interesting — neither bad nor good — experiences in my short life. Perhaps I’ll post reflections on it upon our return home.

[...]

Today is the date of Dr. Brownstein’s session on chest reconstruction; and hopefully, we will get the chance to meet him personally. It is lucky that his session falls directly before lunch; as we will not have to worry about missing the beginning of any other sessions should we end up talking to him longer than expected.

Excitement!

We’re rooking forward to reading Jason’s reflections — good, bad, or otherwise — if he chooses to do so. As well as the views of anyone else who is attending IFGE 2008!

Tucsonans, set your VCRs!

(Do people still have VCRs anymore?)

Tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Tucson’s channel 6, IFGE will be featured by Arizona Public Media’s Arizona Illustrated. The camera crew was out today and did interviews. Thank you, KUAT!

Monica Roberts: “IFGE 2008″

Unfortunately, Monica Roberts can’t make it this year, but she encourages everyone who can to attend:

Yesterday IFGE Conference 2008 kicked off in Tucson. Normally it’s one of the two transgender conferences I try to attend (the other is Southern Comfort) but my work schedule killed my ability to attend this one which will run until April 5.

As a Trinity winner I’m usually interested in finding out who received those awards and the Virginia Prince. They also have some great seminars on a wide range of community issues as well so if you’re looking to attend a conference and get a great ‘ejumacation’ on transgender issues, this one and SCC are the must attend ones for you.

If you live in the Tucson area and would like to attend, they’d love to have you. They are doing on site registration as we speak.

We’re missing you, Monica! Hope to see you elsewhere soon, though!

Lori Anne: “IFGE Event Coverage Video DAY 2″

Lori Anne Davis checks in with her second video blog, and shares about the dangers of local cuisine:

I’m a slob. I guess I am learning that it’s even MORE important to eat carefully now that my breasts are growing. I’ve had to change twice today because I dropped a melted chocolate chip on my blouse (which looked like a dog turd on my white top).

After I picked up Nikki from the airport, we later proceeded to eat at a Mexican eatery where I somehow managed to splash habanero sauce onto my blouse, even after being extra careful not to get anything on it. Damn. 2 for 2.

“For the evening the pool party was a success, and I finally ended up in the lounge with Tiana, Nikki, and a few others just relaxing and being silly. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you before you watch the video!)

“Not much humor left in me. Not much of anything for that matter. I’m having a blast with these friends I’ve finally met. And deep inside…my heart sinks. Because I feel the pull to do this for the rest of my life. The freedom, the desire to be who I am full time, is tugging at my inner being. And I feel so alone even in the midst of friendship. Gotta hang in there. Gotta keep pressing onward, Lori. Gotta keep that chin up, gotta keep smiling. Horsesh–.”

Monica C-L: “Arizona, Here I Come!”

As she heads out to Tucson, Monica Canfield-Lenfest writes about the first IFGE conference she attended:

Two years ago, I attended my first IFGE with fellow KOT Christy Hubert. During a media workshop, I stood to ask a question to the panel: “My name is Monica and my father is a transwoman. I work with COLAGE and have witnessed people with gay and lesbian parents further the rights of their families. How can people with transgender parents do the same?”. The audience gave me a standing ovation. At that moment, with tears in my eyes, I realized that it was time to commit to this work. I couldn’t have done it without the trans community or the queerspawn community.

Tomorrow, I will carry 75 copies of the Kids of Trans Resource Guide Preview in my suitcase.

The guide exists. Now is the time to share it…

On  Friday, Monica will be co-presenting two workshops — “Children of Transgender Parents” at 9:15 a.m., and “When a Parent Transitions” at 3 p.m.

Press Release: “Transgender-friendly Tucson featured at IFGE 2008 Conference”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 1 April 2008
Contact: Kynn Bartlett, IFGE 2008 Media Team
Email: nextofkynn@gmail.com
Cell Phone: (520) 429-7751

Tucson, Arizona, has a reputation as one of the most transgender-friendly cities in the country, both in policy and mindset, and this week the city plays host to the International Foundation for Gender Education’s 22nd annual conference, March 31 to April 5. Workshops given throughout the conference will highlight the unique qualities and programs in southern Arizona make Tucson a friendly place those who do not conform to society’s gender norms. The focus on Tucson will conclude on Saturday, April 5, with a public open house featuring a distinguished panel of civic and community leaders.

Hosted by the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, the IFGE 2008 conference is the first national transgender conference in Tucson and attendance is expected to exceed 400 — from Arizona, the southwest, the rest of the United States, and beyond. The conference is held at the Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park, 445 S. Alvernon Way.

Social activities and excursions to Tucson tourist destinations kick off the week starting on Monday, March 31, and the conference programming begins on Thursday, April 3, with a welcome by Tucson mayor Bob Walkup and a plenary session by activist Jamison Green, author of the prize-winning book “Becoming a Visible Man.”

Wingspan, southern Arizona’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center, will offer an open house and facility tour on Thursday, April 3, starting at 2 p.m. Wingspan is one of the nation’s ten largest LGBT centers. The Southern Arizona Gender Alliance is a program of Wingspan and provides support, reference, and education on transgender issues in the Tucson area.

Tucson has had an ordinance in place since February 1977 that prevents discrimination on basis of sexual orientation; in 1999, gender identity was added to this ordinance, which is a model for other communities. Fifth-generation Tucsonan Liana Perez, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs for the city of Tucson, will present a workshop on “Our Shared Diversity: Meeting the Challenge to Create Success” on Thursday, April 3.

Sarah Jones, Raquel Mrozowski, and Karen Orr will also present “Safe Shelter – Creating a Safe Domestic Violence Shelter” on Thursday, discussing the process that led to the Tucson Centers for Women and Children designating a transgender room in the shelter.

On Friday, April 4, Cathy Jacobus, consumer health librarian at Pima County Public Library, and Karyn Prechtel, managing librarian at PCPL, will co-present a workshop on “Transgender Health and the Public Library.”

Transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 23 in Tucson have the support of the Prism Project and the Eon Youth Center. On Friday, Carly Thomsen, T.C. Tolbert and Wendy Sampson will co-present “The Prism Project – Building a Dynamic Support Program for Transgender Youth.”

Transgender health and social service needs were examined in a twelve-month period in 2006, and primary investigator Kendall Roark, doctoral candidate at Temple University, will present the results in Saturday’s workshop “Transgender and Gender Diverse Community Needs Assessment in Southern Arizona.”

The public is invited to a town hall meeting on Saturday, April 5, at 10 a.m. that will answer the question, “How did Tucson get to be such an accepting community?” Panelists will include Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson; former mayor George Miller; Peter Likens, former president of the University of Arizona; city council member Nina Trasoff; Amelia Craig Cramer, chief deputy Pima County Attorney; John-Peter Wilhite, Commission on GLBT issues; Stephen Russell of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona; Kevin Maxey, co-founder of the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance; and Amanda Simpson, 2004 candidate for Arizona House of Representatives, district 26. The town hall meeting will be held at Reid Park Doubletree Hotel and is sponsored by Raytheon, southern Arizona’s largest private employer.

~~

The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) is a non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1987. IFGE’s purpose is overcoming the intolerance of transgenderism brought about by widespread ignorance and outreach through education for the emancipation of all people from restrictive gender norms.

The IFGE 2008 conference is open to all — transgender, crossdresser, transsexual, transvestite, female to male, male to female, significant other, friend, helping professional, student, educator, or others. For more information on the conference, see http://ifge.sagatucson.org/.

The Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA) is a program of Wingspan, Tucson’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. SAGA provides educational, support, outreach, and other programs for transgender, transsexual, and gender-variant people, as well as families, allies, service providers, employers, and others. For more information on SAGA, see http://www.sagatucson.org/.

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Lori Anne Davis: “IFGE Event Coverage Video DAY 1″

A bamboo-tired Lori made her first video blog about IFGE last night:

“Dang, what’s a girl to wear?

Second thought, I’ll just take almost ALL of it. So I did. Ugh.”