Transcending Boundaries Conference

Transcending Boundaries Conference
Status	Active
Genre	Gender and sexuality
Location(s)	New England
Country	United States
Inaugurated	October 2001
Founders	Lisa Jacobs Alice Leibowitz Vincent Cangiano
Attendance	315
Organized by	Transcending Boundaries, Inc.
Filing status	501(c)(3)
Website	transcendingboundaries.org

The Transcending Boundaries Conference (TBC) was a Northeast American convention for bisexual + other middle sexualities, genderqueer, transgender, intersex, polyamorous and other people who do fall outside strict binaries as well as their family, friends, and straight allies.

History

The Transcending Boundaries conference developed from a regional conference co-organized by BiNet USA, a national organization for bisexuals in the United States. Throughout the 1990s, BiNet USA helped bisexual activists to organize local groups; they also sponsored regional conferences for bisexual people. The Transcending Boundaries Conference developed from a conference facilitated by BiNet USA to serve the U.S. states of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. This tri-state area conference took place in 2000. Attendees voted to host it in successive years independently of BiNet USA, and to host the next year's conference in New Haven, Connecticut.

The new organizing committee comprised three founding members: Lisa Jacobs (President), Alice Leibowitz (Treasurer), and Vincent Cangiano (Secretary), all of Connecticut. They expanded scope of the conference in two ways: First, it widened the geographical reach to include the entire Northeastern United States. Second, they endeavored to appeal to the interests of transgender and intersex people, in addition to the bisexual/non-monosexual community. They also retitled the conference to Transcending Boundaries both to reflect this policy, and to acknowledge that mainstream cultural conceptions of sex and gender often compartmentalize their varied expressions. The committee incorporated in 2001 as Transcending Boundaries, Inc., a Connecticut 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Conferences

Transcending Boundaries held five annual conferences between 2001 and 2006. In 2005 they collaborated with the Americas Conference on Bisexuality. They co-hosted the 2006 convention with the Northeastern United States division of PFLAG.

Transcending Boundaries hosted no conferences in 2007 and 2008, but resumed in 2009, which marked the first year that the conference officially added polyamorous people to its list of communities to serve. The scope of the conference later expanded to include such underrepresented groups as asexual, genderqueer, and "kinky" people.

Number	Year	Date	City	State	Attendance	Notes
1st	2001	October	New Haven	Connecticut	200	Co-sponsored by the LGBT Coop of Yale University.
2nd	2002	October	New Britain	Connecticut	125	Co-sponsored by CCSU PRIDE of Central Connecticut State University.
3rd	2003	October	Amherst	Massachusetts	175	Co-sponsored by the Pride Alliance of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
4th	2005	November	East Hartford	Connecticut	150	Held in conjunction with America's Conference on Bisexuality. Keynote speaker: Magdalen Hsu-Li
5th	2006	October	Worcester	Massachusetts	500	Held in conjunction with the Northeast Regional PFLAG Conference.
6th	2009	November	Worcester	Massachusetts	200	Keynote speaker: Tristan Taormino
7th	2010	November	Worcester	Massachusetts	265	Keynote speaker: Lee Harrington
8th	2011	November	Springfield	Massachusetts	315	Keynote speaker: Kate Bornstein
9th	2012	October	Springfield	Massachusetts		Keynote speaker: Ignacio Rivera
10th	2014	April	Hartford	Connecticut		Keynote speaker: Wintersong Tashlin
11th	2015	November	Springfield	Massachusetts		Keynote speaker: Faith Cheltenham of BiNet USA

See also

• Transgender people and the LGBT community

External links

• Official website