Trans Wellness Conference 2016

Pride Center of WNY presents Trans Wellness Conference 2016 Friday November 18 and Saturday November 19 Evergreen Commons 67 Prospect Avenue – Buffalo, NY (corner of Georgia Street) Keynote Speaker: Lourdes Ashley Hunter, National Director - Trans Women Of Color Collective Featured Presenter: Kayden Coleman, Once Pregnant Trans Man Trans Day of Remembrance - presented by Spectrum Transgender Group of Western New York Saturday November 19 at 7pm also featuring Fran Bailey Elliott DeLine, Author of No Poster Boy, Refuse, I Know Very Well How I Got My Name, and ShowTrans Noah Lewis, Esq. - The State of Trans Rights in NYS Raine Scott, Building Safety Shaan Michael Wade, Category Femboy Realness Josie Zanfordino, Say It Proud! Speech Therapy About The Conference The Trans Wellness Conference is an opportunity to bring members of the trans community together with community allies and providers of health and human services to share in learning and experience. Whether your schedule allows you to participate in the full course of activities or only a few sessions, registration is free of charge. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH 9:00AM REGISTRATION OPENS 9:45AM OPENING REMARKS - PATTI JONES, BOARD CHAIR 10:00AM LIFE AS THE ONCE PREGNANT TRANSGENDER MAN - KAYDEN COLEMAN Kayden Coleman is a transgender father whose pregnancy story went viral in November of 2015. Hear his story about navigating pregnancy as a man, living his life as a black gay man, as well as overcoming the stigmas associated with being a black transgender man. He will also be speaking on raising his daughter in a country that is doing everything in its power to erase his identity and take away the rights of the man she calls Dad. 11:00AM BREAK 11:15AM BUILDING SAFETY – RAINE SCOTT A participant favorite presenter from last year’s conference, Raine Scott returns to discuss exploring the ways in which a safe space can be found, offering unique avenues for identity exploration, and looking at ways to set up boundaries for safe spaces by communicating needs. 12:30PM LUNCH 2:00PM THE STATE OF TRANS RIGHT IN NEW YORK STATE – NOAH LEWIS, ESQ., TRANSCEND LEGAL Noah Lewis is a transgender rights attorney whose practice focuses on ensuring equal access to health care for transgender individuals – returning to our conference for the second year. Previously, Noah has worked for the Transgender Law Center and for five years served as the staff attorney at Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. There he worked on cutting-edge impact litigation in areas such as health care, public accommodations, and identity documents. He was the first openly transgender student to graduate from Harvard Law School, which, following his advocacy, removed trans health exclusions from its student & staff health plans. Noah will discuss the state of trans rights in New York State and legislative priorities for trans people. 3:00PM BREAK 3:15PM THE PART BEFORE SEX: CONSENT, NEGOTIATION, POWER DYNAMICS & PLAY - SHAAN MICHAEL WADE Sex is (usually) great. But for some, it’s a little harder to navigate in a power and gender-obsessed world. Join us for a frank discussion on the countless ways to get it in, risk, consent, tips on working through dysphoria, social power dynamics, and confidence in the bedroom, bathroom, park, dungeon, backseat of your car. 4:45PM LIGHT DINNER/SOCIALIZING TIME 7:00PM AN EVENING WITH ELLIOTT DELINE Author of No Poster Boy, Refuse, I Know Very Well How I Got My Name, and ShowTrans, Elliott Deline is a trans author of the novel Refuse, the novella I Know Very Well How I Got My Name, and the memoir Show Trans. Born and raised in Syracuse, NY, he was voiced “Author of the Year” by readers of FTM Magazine. Elliott will read from and discuss his books, with focus on his new essay collection No Poster Boy. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19 10AM REGISTRATION OPENS 11AM SAY IT PROUD! – REACHING YOUR VOICE MODIFICATION GOALS – JOSIE ZANFORDINO Josie Zanfordino is a NYS licensed speech-language therapist and member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Josie has developed an extraordinary on-line speech therapy program for transgender people who want to explore vocal transformation from their own home via telepractice. Through a series of guided practices with hand-outs participants will be involved in a fun and richly informative series of exercises for safe vocal change. In this workshop participants will learn safe ways to practice without vocal strain, a step by step process to get the body ready for vocal change and how to identify their own female pitch range. 12:00PM LUNCH 1:00PM KEYNOTE ADDRESS: STATE SANCTIONED VIOLENCE: REMOVING THE VEIL - LOURDES ASHLEY HUNTER, MPA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR COLLECTIVE - WASHINGTON, D.C. Trans and gender non-conforming people of color are disproportionately impacted by state sanctioned violence. By exploring how state sanctioned violence manifests in the lives of trans and gender non-conforming people of color we remove the veil of complicity to expose how cis folk benefit from the reinforcement of violence against our community. Trans Women of Color Collective’s mission is to shift that narrative by creating, curating and producing cultural art that centers healing and restorative justice. Come and hear about ways we’ve become change agents and join us in the work of building towards collective liberation of all oppressed people. 2:15PM CATEGORY: FEMME BOI REALNESS - SHAAN MICHAEL WADE What does it mean to reclaim femininity as a trans man or boi? How have expectations of masculinity impacted the gender expression of this community? How do we overcome the trauma we’ve associated with femininity in a violently gendered society? What does being femme or expressing femininity even mean? This discussion aims to tackle the often difficult conversation on navigating femme identity/expression among trans men, bois, and others considered on the "transmasculine" side of the spectrum. 3:30PM BREAK 3:45PM FEEL THE FRAN 2020, PRESENTED BY FRAN BAILEY Fran’s life journey felt very “Average Joe” until she began to peel away the layers toward finding her true self. Working with acceptance toward discovery of her gender identity and overcoming depression and addiction, Fran worked for 46 years to open the gates for serenity to flow into her life. This past summer, Fran learned about changes to insurance regulations that made it possible for her to successfully have gender affirming surgery in Buffalo. Fran shares her experience navigating her multiple journeys and her experience seeking and attaining surgery. 5:00PM LIGHT DINNER 7:00PM SPECTRUM TRANSGENDER GROUP’S COMMEMORATION OF TRANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE Trans Day of Remembrance publicly memorializes the lives lost to transphobic violence in the past year and brings attention to the continued violence experiences by trans individuals. Spectrum Transgender Group of WNY presents a reading of the names and holds in solace their memory. To have a brochure mailed to you or your agency please contact Xavier at XWashington@pridecenterwny.org or 716/852-7743. The Trans Wellness Conference is made possible with support from The Pharmacy at Evergreen Jeffrey Freedman, Attorney at Law in honor of Norman Sfier, MD; Tom Mazur, MD; Lisa Anllo, PhD, and Andrew Reichert, MD.