How can grassroots trans activists and policy reformers work together to advance trans civil rights and gender freedom? How, if at all, should gender matter? I’ll be discussing my book Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? with Ava Pipitone, Executive Director of Baltimore Transgender Alliance, and other local trans activists at the renowned worker-owned and operated Baltimore bookstore.
What: Does Gender Still Matter?
When: Friday, June 2, 2017 at 7:00PM
Where: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
Join me and Kylar Broadus, attorney and founder and director of the Trans People of Color Coalition as we discuss my new book Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? (NYU Press) and the root causes of discrimination against trans and gender non-conforming people. A reception will follow. Buy my book there and all of your money goes to support Housing Works, an amazing organization that provides housing, medical, prevention and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS in NYC.
I’m thrilled to be a part of the Midwest’s Largest Literary Festival. On Saturday, June 10 I’ll be interviewing Janet Mock about her new book, Surpassing Certainty. On Sunday, June 11 I’ll be discussing my book Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? with other writers + activists on the Writing Resistance panel.
In February 2017 I was honored to be named to the City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on LGBT Affairs, a 23-member body that advises the Mayor on policies that support the lives of LGBT individuals in the city and support and amplify the work of the Office of LGBT Affairs.
I’m particularly eager to address institutional discrimination for LGBT+ individuals, and look forward to talking with other members of the Commission about ways in which we can nudge both city government, businesses and schools in our area to question their use of gender classification whether it’s in an application form or a bathroom situation.
Given my research and activism around sex-classification discrimination, I want to be voice to those who maybe have felt marginalized in many different ways by race and socioeconomic class in the city. For example, a lot of the current discussion in the city advocates accommodating transgender people with a separate user bathroom in public spaces. As I show in my book and other research, this does not totally alleviate the discrimination that gender-variant people face in the public sphere. Because of this, in my role on the Commission, I’ll be pushing to consider building a restrooms in a different way so they’re not gendered in the first place.
You can learn more about our work here:
My article, “What the Trump Administration Doesn’t Get About Bathroom Access,” was recently published by CNN.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/opinions/transgender-bathroom-sex-segregation-fogg-davis-opinion/
I will be leading an interactive 2-part workshop at the annual Rehabilitation & Community Providers Association (RCPA) conference on “How to Design Trans-inclusive Organizational Policies and Individual Practices.”
When: September 29, 2016
Where: Hershey, PA
Conference website: http://www.rcpaconference.org
I’ll be leading a workshop presentation, “Administrative Sex-Classification Policies as Race-Sex Discrimination,” drawn from my forthcoming book, Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter?, as part of Drexel University’s Law & Society Reading Group
When: March 18, 2016. 12–1:30 pm
Where: Drexel University Law School, Faculty Conference Room (rm. 266)
I’ll be giving a public lecture, “Male or Female? A Liberal Argument Against Sex-Marked Identity Documents,” which pulls from my book, Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? This event is part of the University of Virginia’s WSG Bernard Mayes LGBTQ lecture series
When: Friday, January 29, 2016 at 3:30
Where: University of Virginia
I’m proud to be moderating a post-screening discussion with filmmaker blair dorosh-walther, Patreese Johnson (one of the New Jersey 4), and members from Hearts on a Wire (a collective of trans and gender variant people inside and outside of Pennsylvania prisons).
Leeway Foundation and Bread & Roses Community Fund present Out in the Night, a documentary that tells the story of the New Jersey 4 – four young African American women who fought back against a violent attack by a stranger on a New York City street. As a result of their self-defense, the women are convicted in the courts and ridiculed by media. The film reveals how race, gender identity and sexuality are used to criminalize these women of color.
The film screening will be preceded by a trailer for the upcoming documentary FREE CeCe, about CeCe McDonald, a trans African American woman who survived a violent, racist, and transphobic attack, and served time in a men’s prison in Minnesota.
When: Out in the Night will screen at 5:30pm on Tuesday, April 21
Where: Drexel University’s URBN Center (3501 Market Street).
More information: http://www.leeway.org/events/film_screening_out_in_the_night/
