Transcending Boundaries Conference

The Transcending Boundaries Conference (TBC) is a Northeast American convention for bisexual + other middle sexualitites, genderqueer, transgender, intersex, polyamorous and other people who do fall outside strict binaries as well as their family, friends, and straight allies.[1][2]

Transcending Boundaries Conference
StatusActive
GenreGender and sexuality
Location(s)New England
CountryUnited States
InauguratedOctober 2001
Founders
  • Lisa Jacobs
  • Alice Leibowitz
  • Vincent Cangiano
Attendance315
Organized byTranscending Boundaries, Inc.
Filing status501(c)(3)
Websitetranscendingboundaries.org

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.[3] 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.[4]

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

References
  1. Goslow, Brian Joining Together 10 October 2006 in The Pulse Magazine
  2. "TBI Mission Statement". Transcending Boundaries, Inc. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  3. Curry, Wendy the 2006 Transcending Boundaries Conference - One Report Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine 30 October 2006 in Curried Spam
  4. "History of Transcending Boundaries". History of Transcending Boundaries. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
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