Gender Conference NYC Professional Symposium 2019

In a society that shames transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming folks (TGNC), especially and always those further marginalized by Blackness, a lack of material resources, and other forms of social difference, navigating love can be thought of as nothing less than a radical, life-affirming, and transformative act. Too often, though, we know that pursuing loving relationships with cisgender folks can result in further internalized shame, intimate partner violence and even death. What does a world look like in which TGNC folks are offered visions of loving partnerships and communities with other TGNC folks? How can these unions serve as healing spaces to work through shame, internalized biases, trauma and the violence of navigating the world as a TGNC person? How can we model possibilities of these types of transformations for young folks? Explore with us as we unpack the importance of TGNC-4-TGNC relationships, the meaning of love outside of binary imaginings, and apply lenses to seeing the transformative power of rejecting hetero- and cis-normative realities.