Transcending Boundaries
Posted by Lex, Career Development Specialist
In November, I travelled to Springfield, MA for the 8th Annual Transcending Boundaries Conference (TBC). I was initially excited to learn how to help the Center build and strengthen the transgender community. But TBC was more than I ever imagined as the conference took a holistic approach, shining light on the grey spaces of gender, sexuality and relationships that are often overlooked like polyamory, kink, asexuality, disability and intersex.
The core of TBC this year was the brash and outspoken Kate Bornstein – a personal hero of mine. Well known for being the performance artist turned writer of Gender Outlaw: On Men ,Women and the Rest of Us and Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, Bornstein’s subversive views and ability to make heady concepts real showcased the efforts of the conference.
In Bornstein’s riveting keynote, she broke down the theme of TBC, Beyond Binary, to the most basic level of all. Amidst all the oppression in the world what will initiate progress is having the power to define ourselves and include people regardless of those definitions. The way we can make the world a better place: Radical Welcoming.
Giving people the space and validation to have their own experiences, accept and support them regardless is part of our mission at Center on Halsted. Visionaries like Kate Bornstein help us understand how we can fulfill that mission. The importance of creating safe and supportive communities empowers each of us to exist.
There was more than one activist rock star in the TBC house. For the poly and kinky realm of the conference, Tristan Taormino, author of Opening Up: Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships and the editor of recently published, Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica provided practical tools and thought-provoking conversations.
Robyn Ochs, a bisexual activist, speaker and editor of Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals from Around the World, brought home the need for spaces like TBC. She asked the audience in the closing panel “who has ever felt too queer or not queer enough?” and nearly everyone in the room raised their hand. It was those moments of solidarity that brought the message home.
On top of the tangible tools and mind blowing ideas that came from TBC’s talented presenters, the jewels were the conversations we all had that spurred community, understanding and a sense that TBC was more than three days .It would live on in the relationships built and the ideas shared to make the world radically welcoming to all of us in the grey space.
- Lex
