Beyond Pronouns: Creating Real Stories About Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People
Presenters
- Kate Bovitch
Gender non-conformity activist
Kate Bovitch is a third culture kid, on-and-off pop culture junkie, and one-person craft revolution with an M.A. from NYU. Kate was a co-founder and board member of the now defunct TransMasculine Community Network and has been involved with Women, Action and Media! (WAM!) for the last six years. Through WAM!, Kate has presented panels on the intersection of feminism, media and transgender/gender-nonconforming issues.
- Laura Kiritsy
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
Laura Kiritsy spent nine years as a reporter, associate editor and editor-in-chief with Bay Windows, New England's largest LGBT weekly newspaper. She also served as editor-in-chief of Bay Windows' sister publication, South End News, a community weekly for Boston's South End neighborhood. In 2004, Laura received the Sarah Petit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Media from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. She has also won two awards from the New England Press Association for social issues reporting and arts and entertainment coverage.
After leaving Bay Windows and South End News in 2009, Laura did freelance writing and worked as the communications coordinator for MassEquality, an LGBT political organization.
Laura is now the manager of public education for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, New England's leading legal organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and HIV status.
- Miriam Zoila Pérez
Feministing.com and RadicalDoula.com
Miriam Zoila Pérez is a writer, blogger and reproductive justice activist. She is an Editor at Feministing.com and founder of RadicalDoula.com. She also serves as an online communications consultant for a number of non-profits, including the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Her work has appeared in Bitch Magazine, The Nation, Colorlines, The American Prospect and a number of anthologies, including Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. In 2010, Pérez was named one of the Lambda Literary Foundation's Emerging LGBT Voices.
- Gunner Scott
Executive Director, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Gunner Scott, executive director of The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, is a nationally recognized activist, educator, and community organizer on Transgender Rights, LGBT health issues, and LGBT partner abuse. He has written articles for What's Up magazine, Sojourner Women's Forum, and "Agitate and Activate," the introduction to Pinned Down by Pronouns, a 2003 Lambda Literary nominee anthology published by Conviction Books. He is on the Board of Directors for the Equality Federation, on the National Board of Advisors for the National Center for Transgender Equality, a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT youth, and a founding steering committee member of the Transgender Advocacy Network, a national coalition of state- and local-level transgender political groups. He holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Goddard College, where he completed an oral history project titled "Boston Area Transgender Community Leaders and the ENDA Crisis." He has been advocating for the Transgender Equal Rights Bill in Massachusetts since 2007 and for a transgender inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on the Federal level since 2001.
Video
Audio
- When
- Friday, April 8, 9:00am - 10:30am
- Where
- Beacon Hill 2-3
map (pdf) - Track
- Social Justice and Movement Building
Beyond Pronouns will educate participants on transgender and gender non-conforming issues, moving beyond preferred names and pronouns. The workshop will highlight both the successes and missteps of the media’s coverage of transgender and gender non-conforming people; how to responsibly report on transgender individuals and issues; provide a basic introduction to terminology and style issues; and explore the media’s intensely narrow lens that focuses on specific individuals rather than issues, like violence, that affect entire communities. The emphasis will be on telling real stories about transgender people—and how to avoid dehumanizing transgender individuals—through proper language and subject matter.
In addition, MTPC will present a new multimedia project, I AM: Trans People Speak. This campaign was created to educate the public about the lives of transgender youth, adults and families, and hopefully to reduce the amount of misunderstanding, stigma, discrimination and violence that transgender people face and to advance equality. We will provide assistance on how to use this project to help media makers with their own reporting on transgender issues and individuals.
This workshop seeks to provide all who attend with a better understanding of accurate media coverage and of how to create media about transgender and gender non-conforming individuals and communities.
