Transgender Religious Leaders Summit (3-5 November 2011)

[Valentine]

(Mods, please let me know if this is too adlike, and I'll modify it or whichever.  I'm still trying to figure out where this fits qua the rules.)

So last year I attended an event at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, a short conference for trans and allied religious leaders.  While it was gratifying to see important work being done, I found myself frustrated--the attendees were, by and large, more conservative than I'm used to in queer and trans activism, and, with only a couple of exceptions, the conference was very Christian-centric.  When I talked to the organizers about it, they said they were hoping for a lot more diversity, but it's a young conference and they didn't know where to go to connect with people outside their own faith traditions.  They, too, were concerned about the blind spots.  They said if I could drum up more people--younger folks, pagan folks, more people of color (I'd expressed frustration at being one of the only ones present)--they would really like to broaden the scope of the conference and make it a real and productive interfaith conversation.  I said I'd see what I can do.

(Full disclosure--they also brought me on board to help run one of the conference events.  I am not, however, seeing any of the registration fees.)

So.  All this is to say there were some wonderful people at this conference last year, and I think the focus of it is really important, and I'd like to see more diversity there--and I'd specifically love to see more pagans-and-allies.  The programs and so on would really benefit from having more input and variety, and as it's a new conference, I think we have a shot at really shaping it into something wonderful.  If any of you are in the Bay Area in the first week of November, I'd love to see you there.  Even if it's far from perfect this year, it would be a chance to connect and have some really powerful conversations and get on board with making it even better in years to come.  We could make it genuinely cross-generational, interfaith, and productive.

So that's my plug.  It's the 2011 Transgender Religious Leaders Summit in Berkeley, from 3 to 5 November, and the website is here:  http://www.clgs.org/events/transgender-religious-leaders-summit-2011

If you want more information, I will see what I can do about providing it.