Last weekend, on the final day of the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference, attendees shared their stories, learned about their legal rights, celebrated their history and looked ahead to the future of the trans and gay community.
This year marked the 15th year for the annual conference. The event is a program of Mazzoni Center.
Elisabeth Flynn, senior communications manager of Mazzoni Center, explained that the conference “started as a one-day event in a Quaker meeting and, from there, in a very grassroots way, bloomed into this very wonderful thing.”
Every year, attendance at Trans-Health Conference has increased. This year, conference organizers estimated around 4,000 attendees. The event also offers a professional track where professionals in legal, medical and behavioral health can learn how to better serve the LGBT community. This year, both the behavior health and medical tracks sold out completely.
“We want medical providers to come here, learn a lot and, when they leave, feel that they can really serve the trans community,” Flynn said. “As far as we know, this is the biggest event of its kind; it’s really for community members and health-care providers. This is an event that’s focused on health and well-being of all kinds.”
Attendees come from all over the globe, and many are return participants.
“You see a lot of the same people over again every year,” said Francisco Cortes of GALAEI: A Queer Latin@ Social Justice Organization. “It’s really nice, to come here year after year and see the same friendly faces.”
This year’s conference theme was “Honoring Our Roots,” celebrating the past, present and future of the trans community. Many workshops and events mirrored this theme, including a talk from young trans activists Jazz Jennings, a workshop hosted by Sadiya Abjani of SAGE about housing rights and discrimination among LGBT seniors, and the highly popular midday showing of the award-winning new documentary about trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, entitled “MAJOR!
“It’s about honoring what the trans movement was, what it looked like, where it came from,” said conference coordinator Samantha Jo Dato. “We’re here to remember that we are all in a marginalized situation and these are our roots.”
Discussion about the state of the trans communities swirled in and out of workshops. Several issues came up repeatedly: Many attendees had concerns about their health and safety as trans individuals, as well as the importance of economic equality for trans people and the risk of homelessness and violence within the trans community.
One attendee named Ashe asked, “Who cares about the trans people in prison? Who’s looking out for them? When no one will hire trans people, you can’t wonder why trans people end up in prison or homeless. Make sure people know that 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT.”
Conference presenter Sadiya Abjani noted, “I think one of the things we can do when we say we’re honoring trans lives, let’s pay trans people to do it. So many trans people are living on the streets who need these jobs, so pay them to do this work. If you want to uplift this community, you’ve got to hire within this community.”
The conference has always been free, as a response to the poverty that is too often common in the community.
“I’m excited that we continue to make it free,” Dato said. “That’s never off the table, it’s not an option. It has to be free to be accessible.”
In the vendors’ room, table displays ranged from sex-positive toys and trans-friendly clothes to technology, trauma support, medical providers and educational programs. Vendors included Women Organized Against Rape, Dr. Jacqueline Gutmann of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s LGBT Family-Building program, GALAEI, Lambda Legal and The Attic Youth Center.
Dato said she and other organizers will consider all feedback when putting together next year’s program.
“It’s not just my vision, I’m a piece of the community, but this conference has so many community members from different places, different intersectionalities and I have to hear them,” Dato said.
Flynn agreed: “We want to be responsive as possible to trans communities, who are so diverse and have such a range of needs. We want to be responsive to things that are happening in the world and help people understand and access those rights.”
That idea came into play after one attendee saw that a security guard made a transphobic post on her Facebook page about having to work the Trans-Health Conference. They asked not be named, but expressed concerns about the safety of the people present.
“That was brought to us right away and that employee was asked to leave,” Flynn said. “It’s always upsetting to see that but, as long as we’re made aware, we can do something. We take this very seriously. Maybe the silver lining is, next year the security firm will know how serious this is, and they’ll take steps to train their employees better.”
Flynn also noted that Mazzoni Center offers professional trainings and workshops on LGBT issues for employers.