Transcending Boundaries Conference

Information about the upcoming Transcending Boundaries Conferenceand items of interest to the LGBTQ+ community. Transcending Boundaries Conference Friday, November 20, 2015 thru Sunday, November 22, 2015 Sheraton Springfield Springfield MA, USA  

[transcendboundaries]

There's still an opportunity for you to fill out the Post-TBC 2015 Survey! Participants filling out the survey will get a discount code for 2016 Conference Registration. Please participate even if you didn't go to the conference. We're interested in why you didn't want to/couldn't attend.  Feedback will information the direction of future conferences. I will be closing the form Saturday night at 9 pm EST to give me time to compile results ahead of Sunday's organizer's meeting. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11wlqNc3GsC055GhmIZjByiwbiHVRARZn1M5-UeCjsEA/viewform

[transcendboundaries]

If you shop at Amazon there’s a way to help support TBC

If you ever order from Amazon, there's a way for TBC to get a small percentage of the $$. We can be looked up as Transcending Boundaries Inc. (http://smile.amazon.com/ ). Just FYI. I know of folks, including myself have issues with some of Amazon's labor practices and often prefer to shop at locally owned businesses, but if you do shop there, there's a way to help out TBC with your purchases.

[transcendboundaries]

The MEETING IS ON. It doesn't look the snow will be too bad on Saturday so the first organizer's meeting is on/. Come find out how to get involved. If you can't make the meeting and want to be involved contact [email protected]. http://transcendingboundaries.org/index.php/get-involved  

[transcendboundaries]

We know it's been over a month since the conference, but the board and conference organizing staff is interested in getting your general impressions of TBC 2015 in order to make TBC 2016 the best conference possible. Please fill out the form even if you did not attend the conference in TBC 2015, as we're interested in WHY you didn't come and what we can do to encourage you to come in future years. s. Please note that anyone who registered for the conference, regardless of whether they were able to ultimately attend will be getting this same form via email in the next few days. Please only fill it out once!

[transcendboundaries]

Afk for TBC 2015!

We’ll be silent for the next few days as we’re busy with our amazing conference! Hope to see you there!

[transcendboundaries]

Final notice on registration and scholarships!

Scholarships Please note: We have a handful of scholarships left to give away, but the window for these is closing at 6 pm today (Thursdaythe 19th) as logistically it's becomes harder to process them closer to the conference. Please get those requests in ASAP (Sara, your 2015 Con Co-chair) http://transcendingboundaries.org/index.php/2015-conference/apply-for-a-scholarship Registration So the other important thing to know is that you can only register online at the $75/$70 rate until 11:59 pm tonight (Thursday 11/19). After that you will have to pay at the conference and will be charged $85/$80 rate. Note if you register in advance online and just need to pay at the conference that's ok and you won't be charged the day of surcharge. So register now! (http://transcendingboundaries.org/index.php/2015-conference/2015-registration) Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.

[wherehavalltheflowersgone]

can you explain the whole asexual but is still sexually active thing to me. i am obviously not asexual and want to be more educated.

Ok since I’m a metaphor person I’ll give you a metaphor.

Homework.

I do not find homework an exciting activity and on its own I wouldn’t do it.There are however reasons why I do homework because doing homework can be worthwhile for other reasons.

Similarly asexual people don’t feel sexual attraction to people but there can be other reasons to have sex (sex drive, enjoying sex, emotional closeness, wanting your partner to feel good, trying to have kids, etc.)

It’s good to remember that every asexual person is different and has different levels of comfort around sex and different motivations to have or not have sex.

[chocopuddingcake]

My teacher said asexuality is a disease.

I’m asexual. Yesterday, while having sexual education class, my teacher said tat the only sexual orientations were heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality. So I asked her why nobody talked about asexuality in sexual education classes. This is what she said: “That’s because asexuality isn’t a sexual orientation. Asexuality is a disease. Asexual people were born wrong, because everybody feels sexual attraction.” And then, the bell rang and she leaved the classroom. Guess who cried for about… 15 minutes? Yeah, me. All my classmates saw me, and one of them (a girl who I thought that was my friend, and she already knew about my asexuality) asked to me: “So you have that disease??”. I’m tired. I’m so fucking tired. It is horrible being told that “it is a phase” or that “you haven’t met the right person yet” or, even worse, “it’s a disease”.

To all the asexuals out there, stay strong.

[theaverageagent]

Asexuality is not a disease.

Asexuality is not a disease.

Asexuality is not a disease.

Your teacher is wrong. She basically said that asexual people are broken and that there’s something wrong with them, which is so not true. I will fight anyone who says that aces are broken. 

There is nothing wrong with asexual people.

[asexualunicorns]

Dunno why I posted this on my personal blog… oops. Point still stands!

[deactivated-donewithtumbl]

Fuck that teacher. She can just stop teaching, right now.

[steampunkitty]

My LGBT Studies professor denied that asexuality existed and eluded to believing that genders outside of the binary are “a fad.” Guess who dropped that class after the first day?

[theflyingfoxy]

how?? the fuck??? did they??? get?? that job?????

[fordeductions-blog]

This is something that asexuals actively have to fight constantly, and as someone studying medicine, let me just say: medicine has failed the asexual. In so many ways. A major one? Lack of sexual attraction is ACTUALLY LISTED as a disease called “Frigidity” in my textbook, which was updated and released LAST YEAR.

Your professors get their jobs because they’re following books written by White Cis Het men who cannot FATHOM that someone wouldn’t desire their flaccid ugly bits. As a student of medicine: I’m sorry. As a grey-ace myself: I’m infuriated.

Keep fighting this, guys. We’re not broken.

[ink-pedia]

Sasha Unisex

[nyctarian]

@a-little-bi-furious it’s a bisexuowl

[scum2000]

3 Easy Steps to be a better Trans Ally

We all want to be the best allies we possibly can be–but sometimes this means addressing hard truths and making accommodations appropriately. 

Whether you’re a member of the trans community or just a supporter, here are a few things to take into account with your activism/involvement with the community as a whole in order to create the safest and most inclusive space. 

1.) Recognize and address racism in the transgender/LGBTQ+ community.  Racism is very much alive and the LGBTQ+ community is not an exception. Although a members of the trans/LGBTQ+ community are minorities themselves, white members often disregard/dismiss racism.

Standing with the trans community means standing with people who have to experience transphobia/transmisogyny as well as racism. Being aware, outspoken, and invested in trans/queer POC(people of color)’s lives is necessary to create an environment that is safe for all. 

2.) Understand the difference between transphobia and transmisogyny.  While all members of the trans community experience transphobia, trans women/feminine people experience a form of misogyny that can be and often is much more violent than transphobia. Trans women are often not heard, pushed to the back, or forces to desperately defend the oppression that they face.  A few things to understand about trans feminine people: AMAB people are not “socialized as male.” They are, instead, socialized as trans women and because of that are placed in a very scary place where they have to reject all forms of femininity otherwise they may potentially face physical violence. Trans women have just as much of a right to feminist spaces as any other woman. Trans women are not more represented than trans men or other trans demographics. 

3.) When creating trans safe spaces, remember these two demographics!  Whether you’re starting a trans project, creating a blog, or writing/reading trans stories–paying special attention to TPOC(Trans People of Color) as well as trans women will create more welcoming and intersectional spaces. 

As members of such a marginalized demographic, it is in the best interest of our community and our humanity to pay attention to these narratives and to validate them with more than understanding. Acknowledging the struggles of those around us, opening up our spaces to people with these experiences, and being willing to work harder to support TPOC and trans women are things that anyone, anywhere can do. 

Thank you for reading and keeping your mind open. Feel free to add to this list. 

[kruczynskijoy-deactivated201801]

Something I wrote for a friend who wants to explain the complexities of dating trans women to a poly community...

As a trans woman, my dating pool is tiny, even within poly communities. Most cis-gender people (people who are not trans), whether they are straight, gay, bi, or pan, will not entertain the idea of dating us. That makes dating incredibly difficult from the start in a general sense. But beyond that, even in a “progressive” space like the poly community, there are widespread issues even with the people who are willing to date us.

-Fetishization. Many of us have fetishes, and that’s awesome (Hooray! Let your freak flag fly!). What isn’t awesome is being the subject of a fetish, at the expense of being viewed as a whole, human person. I’ve dealt with this over and over since I started living authentically. The worst part isn’t being asked about your junk right off the bat- It’s the vibe you get from them that they assume that you must be so pathetic and desperate for attention and affection that you will take any that is offered to you. Umm. Nope. I’m not in any way interested in helping you tick a box on your personal sexual bucket list. I’m a woman and a person deserving of respect, and I demand that from anyone I date. The good news? These people are pretty easy to suss out.

-The Experimenters. I get a lot of messages from cis men who outwardly identify as straight, but see me as some sort of “taste test” they can perform to see if they are actually bi (or maybe even gay). In their eyes, I’m some sort of sexual gateway drug (“Looks like a woman, but has a penis for me to train on!”). To a lesser extent, I’ve also gotten this from the opposite direction from cis lesbians. Nope. I’m not going to be your sexuality Sherpa on the down-low.

-The “open-minded.” This has been a big issue. Repeatedly, I’ll meet someone cool. They will admit that they’ve never dated a trans person before, but seem very open-minded and very into me. Then, once things get tangible in a physical or emotional sense, they disappear (often straight-up ghosting me… but it can get worse than that… once a guy freaked out IN THE MIDDLE OF A SECOND DATE WHILE WE WERE HALF NAKED AND MAKING OUT). It’s happened enough times that I can see the pattern: They are far less “open-minded” and “progressive” than they thought they were. They feel guilty about this, so they just absolutely bail. Don’t do this. I’m an actual person with real feelings. Before you get involved with a trans person for the first time THINK LONG AND HARD about what you really want. Trans folks are an incredibly vulnerable and persecuted population. Please don’t do stuff like this and make it even worse.

[bisexual-books]

Why Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's Relationship Matters

We take a close look at Harley Quinn and Poision Ivy's comic-book relationship - and at why it's so important...

[transcendboundaries]

TBC 2015 is a scent free conference!

Please refrain from wearing cologne of perfume as a courtesy to attendees with allergies and respiratory issues. More information can be found at http://transcendingboundaries.org/index.php/2015-conference/accessibility

[dailyjessewilliams]

[starlingsongs-deactivated201608]

When trans women are mocked and made into jokes in the media, I get very upset, and I am often told “Kay, you can’t go through life getting offended every time someone makes a joke.” And I sputter and object but they don’t hear me. So I want to be clear for once, about why the jokes make me angry.

I learned to hate myself for being transgender before I knew I was transgender. I laughed at the jokes in stand up comedy routines, and prime time sitcoms, and animated comedy shows, and in the movies, and in books, and in games, laughing at trans women for existing, about “men in dresses”, about people who “got their dicks chopped off”, and I learned to think that was worthy of ridicule.

And then a day came when I felt a pang of envy at what my female classmates were wearing and I repressed it, and felt guilty, and a day where I felt incomplete because I had no breasts and I repressed it and I felt disgusting And a day when I realized the only images of romance that made me feel anything showed two women together and I repressed it and I felt like a monster And a day when I realized I felt sick when I looked at myself in the mirror after every shower before work and couldn’t bear to look at my own face, and I hated myself. And then there came a day when I hated myself so much, and I thought I could never understand why, and so I just wanted it all to end. And it was just a miracle that I swerved my car back into my lane in time.

And all of it started with a joke that I heard on TV, and then kept hearing from all the voices from the ether, over and over and over, worming an idea into my mind before I was old enough to realize I was absorbing it, the idea that a man in a dress is funny, and that changing your body parts makes you a freak, and that women who have penises instead of vaginas are liars and hurt men. And they’re still making these jokes. And somewhere out there right now, just like all those years ago, there is a little girl in a t-shirt and cargo shorts with buzzed off hair watching the TV, hearing that joke and absorbing it without knowing it, who will someday have to pry herself apart to tear it out of her head, just like I did.

That is, if she doesn’t kill herself first.

[starlingsongs-deactivated201608]

I know this is a really heavy post but if you read it and you appreciated it, I’d appreciate it in return if you reblogged it. This is really important to me and I want people to read it and understand it. Thank you.

[the-flower-queen-blog1]

And people still perpetrate the idea that trans depression and suicide rates are much higher because there is some other “disorder” that is causing it, maybe if every day you had your identity invalidated by somebody “making a joke” then you’d know how we feel, maybe if you were constantly called a freak and told you’re hated you’d begin to understand. If society as a whole is constantly telling us that they hate us, how do you think were going to feel about ourselves.

[transcendboundaries]

Click through for a comprehensive list of the measures we are taking to make our event accessible to everyone. We especially encourage anyone planning to attend to read “Allies: How every member contributes to an accessible con.”

[transcendboundaries]

This Children's Book About Sex And Gender Is A Total Game-Changer

Sex is a Funny Word is revolutionizing the way caregivers can talk to kids about their bodies.

All genders! All types of bodies! All types of families! All types of attraction! Representation! AND no shaming. What a great resource.