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

TheTranscending Boundaries Conference(TBC) was aNortheast Americanconventionforbisexual + other middle sexualitites,genderqueer,transgender,intersex,polyamorousand other people who do fall outside strict binaries as well as their family, friends, andstraight allies.

History

The Transcending Boundaries conference developed from a regional conference co-organized byBiNet USA,a national organization forbisexualsin theUnited States.Throughout the 1990s, BiNet USA helped bisexualactiviststo 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 theU.S. statesofConnecticut,New Jersey,andNew York.Thistri-state areaconference took place in 2000. Attendees voted to host it in successive years independently of BiNet USA, and to host the next year's conference inNew 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 oftransgenderandintersexpeople, in addition to thebisexual/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 Connecticut501(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 ofPFLAG.

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 asasexual,genderqueer, and "kinky"people.

Number	Year	Date	City	State	Attendance	Notes
1st	2001	October	New Haven	Connecticut	200	Co-sponsored by the LGBT Coop ofYale University.
2nd	2002	October	New Britain	Connecticut	125	Co-sponsored by CCSU PRIDE ofCentral Connecticut State University.
3rd	2003	October	Amherst	Massachusetts	175	Co-sponsored by the Pride Alliance of theUniversity 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 RegionalPFLAGConference.
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 ofBiNet USA

See also

• Transgender people and the LGBT community

External links

• Official website
• Bisexual ConferencesatCurlie