General Schedule

Workshop Schedule

Workshop Descriptions

Workshop 1, Saturday, 10:00 - 11:15AM

What’s Immigration got to do with Queer Liberation? - Jordan Garcia - Fundamentals
Immigration continues to be a volatile discussion, with anti immigrant sentiment from Colorado often taking the main stage. At times, those working for immigrant justice struggle to include or understand the nuances of LGBTQ immigrants. Often the fact that there are immigrants in LGBTQ community is over looked by our movement leaders. Using popular education exercises, we’ll explore the history of immigration and the challenges LGBTQ immigrants face. Most importantly, we’ll discuss what each of us can do to create a more just society we’d all like to live in.

Jordan T. Garcia, 31, is the Immigrant Ally Organizing Director for Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, a project of the American Friends Service Committee. He serves on the board of directors for the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training and the Chinook Fund, member of the Funding Exchange. Jordan contributes to the LUZ Reproductive Justice Think Tank and does outreach for the Underground Syringe Exchange Denver (USED). He believes that community organizing for systemic change can and will lead us to liberation. Jordan uses an anti-oppression lens to do leadership development in our movements for justice. Jordan was born in San Antonio, TX, grew up in Kansas City, KS and moved to Colorado in 1998. He graduated from Colorado College in 2002 with a B.A. in International Political Economy with an emphasis on Urban Studies. A sensitive Cancer, Jordan enjoys cooking with friends, riding his bike, planning for the post revolution industrial collapse and hopes to one day become a better bee farmer.

Voice and Communication Training for Transgender Individuals - Jen Walentas Lewon, MS, CCC-SLP - All Audiences
Voice and other speech/language/communication behaviors are important factors in perception of gender. Individuals going through gender transition may seek training to modify their voice or communication behaviors. This workshop will include:

• education regarding voice and communication specific to transgender individuals
• interactive demonstration of voice assessment tasks and voice training techniques
• education regarding community and online resources for vocal health

Workshop 2, Saturday, 11:30 - 12:45PM

Academic Panel - J. Frank Galarte, Morgan Seamont, Li Brookens - All Audiences
In this session, three individuals will take turns sharing their papers on trans-related issues. After all three presenters have shared their respective work, there will be a facilitated Q@A. Full paper titles and abstracts are below.

A Legacy of Mexican Woman Hating: Re-membering Gwen Araujo and Angie Zapata - J. Frank Galarte
This paper offers a "re-imagining" and "remembering" of the deaths of Gwen Amber Rose Araujo and Angie Zapata, two transgender Mexican American women who were brutally murdered in 2002 and 2008. The trial and activism that followed the murder of Gwen Araujo has subsequently informed both state and federal legislations that theoretically extend protections to transgender and gender non-conforming populations such as the Matthew Shephard and James Byrd Jr. Federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was signed into law months after the conviction and sentencing of Zapata’s killer in 2009. In this paper I will demonstrate the exploitation of the transgender, brown, queer body as a pedagogical tool for teaching about transgender subjectivities and livelihood through the documentaries that were produced shortly after the death of these two women. I will show that in repetition of the continual re-staging of these women’s deaths, the violence becomes normalized and the murder of Gwen Araujo and other trans women of color remain at best, a shadow in the LGBT historical imagination and within Chicana/o Studies, Gwen Araujo and Angie may have not ever existed. Furthermore, this paper posits transphobic violence as a contemporary extension of "imperialistic practices" on the borderlands that seek to discipline and subordinate the brown, queer and gendered body. To counter such narratives, I insist on a "reframing" and "remember-ing" of the lives of these women, that offer insight to both the corporeal and institutional violence that inform the lives of transgender and gender non-conforming Chican@s.

De-medicalizing Trans - Morgan Seamont
Much of the research on Trans has come from the medical and mental health fields, focusing on explaining transgender positions. While this is an important aspect and serves to further transgender rights for access to care, being transgender is about more than a medical/psychological diagnosis. Anthropological research aims to reveal an understanding of transgender lives rather than an explanation for their "condition." How would such an approach empower transgender people? What knowledge would this approach be able to share with the public and allow them to understand what the inclusion and support of transgender lives offers to us all? What happens when the medical and psychological aspects of being transgender are not at the heart of research? This paper aims at answering these questions and exploring the value of the full variation of gender identities.

Transgender Inclusion in U.S. Collegiate Sports: Administrator Perspectives Through a Queer-Feminist Lens - Li Brookens
This paper presents findings from a national study where the data collected documents how Athletic Administrators (AA) at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) institutions include transgender student-athletes (TSA) in their policies and practices. Findings also relate to administrators in higher education who may seek to increase inclusive policy and practice. In the mixed methods study a queer-feminist theory for analysis was used, which serves to deconstruct political and legal barriers that prevent marginalized populations (i.e. – TSA) from having the same rights and resources from those in power (i.e.- AA`s) (Sykes, 1998). Additionally, “transgender” is defined as someone who expresses a wide range of identities, appearances, and/or behaviors that fall outside of stereotypical gender norms of either male or female (Gender Spectrum, 2010, p. 2). In September 2011, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) adopted a transgender inclusion policy for post-season competition (NCAA, 2011). This policy is a major step forward for inclusive practice, yet its impact and effectiveness may be limited as individual institutions in the NCAA maintain the power to keep transgender athletes from participating in regular season competition if they so choose. While this study was conducted prior to the NCAA announcing their transgender inclusion policy, relevant findings document important AA perspectives that may shed light on barriers to TSA inclusion.

Transgender Health Care - Julia Woods & Esther Newlin - Fundamentals
This is an introduction to a variety of pertinent issues in transgender health care, from barriers to receiving health care to the different ways in which a person can "transition." Most health care professionals are never taught even the most basic information about working with transgender patients: this is an especially (great) opportunity for pre-health students. Speaker Esther Newlin, an assistant Manager at the Central Planned Parenthood Clinic (which provides hormonal therapy for transgender patients,) will be sharing her knowledge, insights, and experiences. Come with questions!

Film: Austin Unbound
The first documentary about a man who is deaf and trans. From the age of three, Austin knew that his female anatomy did not fit him. In middle school, he changed his name and began to dress as a boy. His family thought it was a phase, but he persisted. Now he will get surgery so he can breathe freely and finally, swim in public.

Workshop 3, Saturday, 3:45 - 5:00PM

Sex Positivity: Building Blocks for Social Justice in the Classroom and the Clinic - Kati Standefer - Fundamentals
As long as our culture views sex as inherently negative and wrong, we will struggle to offer appropriate care and compassionate treatment to those whose sexuality or gender identity falls outside what is prescribed as “normal.” In this session, Kati Standefer of the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center will help unpack how our culture’s sex-negativity adversely affects the health of communities. She provides an overview of “sex negativity” and “sex positivity,” offering simple guidelines that can help us determine what is “safe” or “healthy” without demonizing particular identities or interests. Participants will also gain insight into how the lens of sex positivity has informed BVWHC’s ongoing journey—internal and external—to create safe spaces in the clinic and the classroom.

Kati Standefer is the Youth Services Coordinator at Boulder Valley Women’s Health. Over the last two years she has taught sexual health education to more than six thousand students in Boulder Valley School District and the surrounding area, and has helped mentor close to thirty high school-aged peer educators. She also manages Teen Clinic, which offers confidential, free and low-cost services to youth under 20.

Gender Does Not Equal Behavior- changing an HIV testing protocol to increase access and effectiveness - Lee Scriggins LCSW- Program Supervisor, Jacob Friedman- Peer HIV Tester, Sean Connell- Peer HIV Tester, Liza Fryberger- Peer HIV Tester - All Audiences
Community Health, the public health division of the Wardenburg Health Center has offered peer delivered, free HIV testing for 12 years. This past year, we reviewed our testing protocol to make our testing inclusive of all genders and more effective for risk assessment. The process of this change will be discussed, and reviewed.

Film: Photos of Angie
This moving and powerful documentary chronicles the life and murder of Angie Zapata -- a transgender teen who was murdered in rural Colorado in 2008. The film includes extensive interviews with her family about her journey of self-discovery, transgender lives across the globe, hate crimes legislation, and the mysterious nature of her killer -- all against the backdrop of his trial. The film features a haunting score by Mackenzie Gault of the band The Flobots and a song from L.A.-based, Ozomatli. Photos of Angie was made with the full cooperation of Angie’s family and has the support of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Workshop 4, Sunday, 10:00 - 11:15AM

Supporting Trans Youth and Their Families: A Mother's Perspective - Karen Adams - Intermediate
Want to know more about the real lives of young transgender children in their families? Come join us and find out what you “don’t know that you don't know”. As a mother of a young trans child, Karen Adams has moved from understanding the needs of her own child 5 years ago to facilitating the TYES support group and working with families and organizations nationally. In this workshop, Karen will draw from her experience with hundreds of families to discuss how to best support them. Topics will include the gender spectrum, misconceptions, population data, what new families need most, safe folders and more.

Sex Positivity: Building Blocks for Social Justice in the Classroom and the Clinic - Kati Standefer - Fundamentals
As long as our culture views sex as inherently negative and wrong, we will struggle to offer appropriate care and compassionate treatment to those whose sexuality or gender identity falls outside what is prescribed as “normal.” In this session, Kati Standefer of the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center will help unpack how our culture’s sex-negativity adversely affects the health of communities. She provides an overview of “sex negativity” and “sex positivity,” offering simple guidelines that can help us determine what is “safe” or “healthy” without demonizing particular identities or interests. Participants will also gain insight into how the lens of sex positivity has informed BVWHC’s ongoing journey—internal and external—to create safe spaces in the clinic and the classroom.

Kati Standefer is the Youth Services Coordinator at Boulder Valley Women’s Health. Over the last two years she has taught sexual health education to more than six thousand students in Boulder Valley School District and the surrounding area, and has helped mentor close to thirty high school-aged peer educators. She also manages Teen Clinic, which offers confidential, free and low-cost services to youth under 20.

Film: Transgeneration (Festival Cut)
Across America, transgender college students are visible and political, and bravely challenge the status quo. In this eight-part original documentary series, filmmaker Jeremy Simmons follows a year in the lives of four transgender students as they define who they are and take control of their gender identity. Gabbie and Raci (born male, but now living as women) and Lucas and T.J. (born female, but now living as men) attend different campuses and come from varied social backgrounds, yet are all about to experience a pivotal moment in their lives.