Day 2 AM of the Conference / Day 3 of my trip, Saturday, March 31, 2023

Today was a whirlwind with 9 different sessions offered + the opening session + a movie screening in the evening. Let's dig in.

The opening was a Two-Spirit Trans+ Panel with Sekani Dakelth, Sandra Laframboise, Kyle Shaughnessy and Saylesh Wesley.

Sandy Laframboise spoke to how in the 1970s they were considered "transsexual," and being a drag queen and being fabulous only was the way to survive, because society could then understand how to categorize and make meaning of what was going on. But in the '90s, she developed a sense of duty to herself and community, much of it through learning about the model of transgender, not transsexual. Thus, her identity as a whole person began to develop. A broad third iteration came about when indigenous peoples recognized being "two-spirit," bringing spirit back to her body.

There was so much wisdom flowing from the panel that it's a little bit difficult for me to digest it here, but I'll try. Saylesh elaborated on someone else's analogy of wearing a mask, having a sense of empowerment, and having more than one set of ears, eyes and even mouths. I imagine it's about having a sense of agency and choice in intuiting and making one's way through the world fluidly....

Saylesh also said that even having another [metaphorical] eye is the youth coming in and seeing what works but also seeing something to add to evolve things. This made the corners of my mouth tremble with joy. It reminded me of yesterday when she told us of her grandmother who told people to hug trees, which made my youngest tell me that is his true purpose in life. Whoah!

For the next session, I chose Six Inch Cabaret: On Doing and Teaching Queer Oral History. We heard from Professor El Chenier who talked about their queer oral history class, and actually had DJ, a 20-something-year-old student of theirs on Zoom as part of the panel. He identified himself as cis, het, 2nd-generation Filipino. He had done a lot of prep work to meet with Lukas Walther, with last-minute things not going right, like getting the correct room reserved. So he and Lukas thoroughly enjoyed a more conversational style than an interview. The student reflected how he pivoted through discomfort to a hands-on approach to history. Further, oral history is digestible and has a humanity to it. A parallel was made to podcasting. It's digestible and is not history being written by the victors. Mind blown!

Lukas shared how DJ's vulnerability created a condition where all sorts of stories just poured out of him. He said one beautiful sentence, "Where are the stories when everything is an infomercial and in 30-second sound bites?"

The oral history really came alive when, during lunch with me, Lukas elaborated on the Six Inch Cabaret he hosted in the 1970s in order to fund his bottom surgery. A filmmaker friend of his was there, but his student accidentally recorded over the footage taken that night. And no pictures were taken. So, oral history to the rescue!

A little more on the fundraiser was that Lukas' friend agreed to do a reveal of his bottom-surgery results. If people were going to be curious and if they were to support Lukas in his journey, they decided to show the phalloplasty (operative creation of a penis, to support the full gender identity of some trans men). I love the courage and trust and community in this event.

Seeing the Transgender Archives was a treat. If they were to stack their collection, it would span one-and-a-half football fields! They acquire through donations posthumously, purchases and networks. People could donate to other places like the Yale Manuscripts and Archives, Library of Congress, or the University of Toronto Archives; however, enough people choose to complement what is here already. This sense of interconnection helped me make meaning of this sweet, serene spot. Kudos to founder and Chair of University of Victoria's Transgender Department, Dr. Aaron Devor, for having established this place 12 years ago.

Today I also attended a panel on transgender rights in the workplace (maybe I can add more on that later), and then there's the evening movie screening that was totally amazing.

Here is the trailer for Framing Agnes, which was named a Best Movie of the Year by The New Yorker after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. I enjoyed every minute of it, as it shared the story of Agnes who in the 1950s convinced doctors she was intersex, so that she could receive the surgery to fully embrace her identity as a woman. The film had several sassy characters and I would like to watch it again to catch all the layers that the filmmakers have woven into the film.

The one time in this conference that I've heard a joke cracked about becoming transgender was when the film concluded, during the filmmaker and actor panel. Most of the crew and actors in the film are trans, and somebody asked if they knew how many. One of the actors quipped, "We don't know. And there's still time."

I spoke with a fellow filmgoer who happens to be an established author and elder in the trans community. His name is Jamison Green, with his second edition of the 20-year classic Becoming a Visible Man that was republished in 2020. Jamison shared the story of a dad who never revealed to his wife or son that he was trans. Due to the wife's medical condition, the couple had never been intimate, and they had adopted their son. It was only upon his death that they found out that this person was a trans man. The son accepted this truth and became a great ally in the trans world. To me, this touches the heart of how each of us is infinite and not fully knowable. Also, again this message, if we can share our authenticity, we can crate pathways for more intimacy and connection.