Dates:
Friday, November 4, 2005
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Sunday, November 6, 2005

Location:
Sheraton Hartford Hotel in East Hartford, CT

from left to right: Julia Lunetta, Rosa Lee, Benjamin Robin, Lisa Jacobs

Getting Bi author Robyn Ochs

from left to right: Jerimarie Liesegang, Alice Leibowitz, Ryan McGrath, Lisa Jacobs

2005 Workshops

Workshop 1 - Sat., Nov. 5 - 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

What Bisexuality Is, and What It Isn't
Sharon Zohar
Suite 202
This workshop/discussion will provide a comprehensive introduction to bisexuality and will cover the following: definitions of bisexuality, bisexual myths, biphobia and bisexual invisibility in the gay and straight communities, coming out as bisexual, the bisexual community, the Kinsey Scale, an explanation of pansexuality and polyamory, and how organizations can be inclusive and welcoming of bisexuals.

Transgender: Beyond the Myths and Misconceptions...
Jerimarie Liesegang
Suite 206
This workshop will be a primer on the transgender community and its issues. To begin, we will identify and clarify the distinctions between sex, gender, and sexual orientation. We will then discuss the wide range of identities, experiences, and presentations that can fall under the term transgender. All respectful questions will be taken seriously.

Intersexuality: Introduction, Issues, and Identity
Ryan McGrath
Suite 214
This workshop will discuss the basics of intersexuality including possible causes and variations. It will also address the issues intersexed people face in today's society from infant surgery to identity.

My Partner's Other Girlfriend Sure Is Cute: A Polyamory Panel
Shahn Dickson, Janie, Tom Limoncelli, Ciaran McCormack, Cicely Smith
Suite 222
What's the secret to making poly relationships work? Where does dating end and a relationship begin? Isn't ethical slut a contradiction in terms? Join us as we peruse the basics: negotiation, jealousy, time management; and beyond: boundaries, contracts, insecurity, time management (important enough to list twice!). The audience is invited to join in; let's hear your story!

Workshop 2 - Sat., Nov. 5 - 10:45 AM-12:15 PM

HIV Risk and Prevention in Transgender/Bisexual/Intersex Individuals
Alexander Potter
Suite 202
Transgender, bisexual, and intersex individuals all face specific, and different, challenges regarding sexual health, including HIV prevention. Attend this workshop with an (FTM) HIV prevention worker to discuss the challenges of keeping ourselves safe and healthy. Please bring along your thoughts on what specific challenges we face as trans, bi or intersex.

Going Beyond Diversity and Building Community with People with Disabilities
Cheryl Linear
Suite 206
This workshop will look at a brief history of the Independent Living movement and laws protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. Participants will discuss practical and concrete methods of building community and relationships with people who have disabilities. Issues of sexuality will be discussed, including the way that sexuality complicates the social, political, and economic realities people with disabilities face every day. Discussion topics will allow participants to relate the educational handouts to their everyday experiences. Time will be allotted for questions and answers to issues raised by participants.

They Can't Put Me in Jail for THAT, Can They?
Valerie White
Suite 214
What constitutes kinky sex? Can consensual spanking, sex toys and swing parties get you arrested? How can you express kinky sexuality without encountering law enforcement? What should you do if you are questioned by police about what you do in the bedroom? This workshop will identify varieties of kinky sex and provide some clear guidelines to help you stay out of trouble. It will answer your questions about the current state of the law in the areas of polyamory, swinging, sex toys, BDSM, sodomy and assault.

Race, Gender, and Sexuality: Erotic Transgression and Contested Boundaries
Herukhuti
Suite 222
This workshop explores the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intersect, complement, and confound each other in the erotic lives of people of color. Special attention will be given to questioning the possibilities for erotic transcendence and transgression as well as the internalization of erotic oppression. Topics discussed to include: skin color as a boundary, the erotic as AMans of liberation, the body as prison and a site of revolutionary struggle, and the impact of being sexualized and gendered as a person of color. The workshop is open to all conference attendees.

"T" & "I" Aren't Just Tack-ons: Being a True Ally to Trans and Intersex People
TR Richardson and Deborah S. Levine
Salon A
Despite the fact that more and more people are openly identifying as trans or intersex, these communities continue to simply be tacked on to pre-existing initiatives for gay, lesbian and bisexual communities. In order to genuinely become an ally, people need to learn more, examine their values and take concrete steps to truly be inclusive and effective. This interactive workshop will help jump start and build upon that process.

Building Community by Creating/Running Support Groups and Munches
Marah Fellicce & Tom Limoncelli
Salon B
An easy ways to build community is to have regularly scheduled events such as support groups, discussion groups and munches. What are they? What are the secrets to successfully starting and continuing these events? How can we increase interconnections between the bi/trans/intersex communities at and through these events? Note: The second half of this workshop will be hard-core "how to facilitate" training with handouts and other cool stuff.

Working it Out: Youth-Adult Partnerships in Organizing
Robin McHaelen & Tan Pham
Salon C
In this workshop, we will discuss youth-adult partnerships in organizing and community activist settings. We will explore the differences between youth and adult culture; including what a youth-adult partnership is and is not, what type of barriers are there between the age groups, what benefits will evolve out of this partnership and what strategies can we design to form and better youth-adult partnerships.

Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World
Robyn Ochs
Salon D
Join editor Robyn Ochs in celebrating the release of this exciting international anthology that features writers from 32 different countries. Robyn and a selection of the book's contributors will read their essays and answer questions about the book. Come learn about Getting Bi, get your copy signed, join us in celebrating the successful completion of this 3 1/2-year grassroots project!

Workshop 3 - Sat., Nov. 5 - 3:15 PM-4:45 PM

Multiculturalism and Identities in the New Millennium
Cheryl Linear
Suite 202
This workshop will include exercises and roundtable-like discussions. People of Color (POC) participants will be asked to talk about ethnicity, class, sexuality, and other identities and communities they identify with while in paired and group discussions with others. Exercises will encourage POC to talk about what it is like to identify with different multiple cultural identities that compartmentalize their humanness.

Growing Old and Queer: Health Issues for the Aging LGBTI
Bobbi Williams & Ari Kane
Suite 206
Presentation followed by Q & A and Participant Discussion. Topics covered will include Health Concerns, Dealing with Practitioners, Nursing Homes and Assisted Living, and Legal Issues.

SOFFAs: Significant others, family, friends and allies
Kristal Barnes & Kasha Ho
Suite 214
This is a workshop for significant others, family, friends and allies (SOFFAs) of transgender, bisexual, and intersex people. This workshop will give SOFFAs supportive and safe space to meet others, build community, and speak about their experience. Participants will discuss how to get support for themselves, how to better communicate their own needs, and how to better understand the needs of their significant other/friend/family member. SOFFAs who are also members of bi/trans/intersex communities are welcome. The workshop will mainly be an open and informal discussion, and will include at least one activity.

Suicide and the Queer Community
Lin Hill
Suite 222
Many people in the Queer Community have felt the tremendous impact of suicide. Most have given the thought serious consideration. Many have attempted. Some have succeeded. Friends and families of people who take their own lives must deal not only with their grief, but also anger, fear, guilt and shame. Learn the risk factors that contribute to suicide, what resources are available, how and when to seek help for yourself or another and what you can do to ease the burden of someone at the edge of the abyss. Share your personal experiences and listen to those of others in this interactive discussion workshop. If you have ever considered suicide, you are not alone. Let's work together to bring this topic out in the open. If we can't even speak the word, we can't change the reality of this devastating problem.

The Past, Present, and Future of the Bisexual Movement
Fritz Klein
Salon A
Fritz Klein, who has been in forefront of the Bi movement from its early inception in the 1970's to the present time, will present the various trends of the movement showing where it was in the past, where it is now, and where it likely will be in the future. He is most interested in talking about things the audience is specifically interested in and wishes this to be an interactive presentation.

LGBTIQQPansexualPolySwitchGenderqueer
Lisa Jacobs, Rosa Lee, Julia Lunetta, Benjamin Robin
Salon B
The identities get longer and longer as our communities grow and we find language for ourselves. What do we seek in labels? How are they useful? When are they problematic? What can we do if we want to unlabel ourselves? Is it possible? This workshop will begin with a get-up-and-move genderrific game experience, so please be on time to participate. Then, a panel-facilitated discussion will help explore what it means to label ourselves, with particular focus on the increasing trends of people identifying as pansexual and genderqueer, and what such generalized identities can mean.

Using Theatre of the Oppressed to Examine Sexual/Gender Boundaries
Herukhuti
Salon C
This interactive, experiential workshop is based upon the popular education methodology known globally as Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). TO draws upon theatre games and introspective exercises to facilitate the process of "naming the world" in which we live, critiquing the social limitations and boundaries that exist with that world, and suggesting alternative ways of being, doing, and living so that we change the world. In this workshop, themes such as gender, sex, power, identity, race, and culture will be explored using the body and the mind as tools for critical theorizing.

Sat., Nov. 5 - 5:00 PM-6:00 PM

Create Your Own Workshop (4 slots)
You!
Suites 202, 206, 214 and 222
Community conferences like Transcending Boundaries are ever-evolving experiences. A conversation you have in your hotel room on Friday night or a comment in a workshop you attend can spark an idea for a whole new conversation. If you have a topic you'd like to lead a conversation on, here's the time and the space! To reserve a slot, visit the registration area during the conference. Slots may fill up quick, so don't delay. If there isn't room for your idea, we encourage you to post a note inviting people to dinner to chat. Workshop titles will be posted by the registration area and will be announced at conference-wide events, so be on the lookout for a topic of interest to you.

Workshop 4 - Sun., Nov. 6 - 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Creating A Both/And Identity in an Either/Or World
Robyn Ochs
Suite 202
Having any sexual orientation at all comes with its own baggage, there are particular issues faced by people who identify as bisexual or who use other labels that defy an either/or interpretation of the world. Together we will examine these issues and devise strategies to proudly "be all that we can be."

Shades of Gray in the Black/White World: Commonalities of the Transgender, Intersex, and Bisexual Communities
Wendy Curry, Ryan McGrath & Alexander Potter
Suite 206
Panel-led discussion will examine the common experience and resulting alliances of the Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex communities. We will look at the past, present, and future of the BITexperience and discuss how seeing the world in shades of gray affects their views on such topics as the ex-gay movement, same gender marriage, and other timely topics.

Intersections and Effects of Class & Race in GLBTI Communities
POWER
Suite 214
The enormity and complexity of combating classism and racism often fazes people, especially white, middle-to-upper class people, and keeps them from pursuing positive change. Despite interest in diversity, many bisexual, transgender, and intersex organizations tend to be predominantly white and middle class. Frequently, characteristics of middle class Anglo-American culture unwittingly become accepted as superior, objective "norms" in these organizations. As GLBTI people who seek positive social change, the issues we choose to prioritize (such as rights for sex workers, same-sex marriage, fair housing standards, queer people in the military), reflect our class and racial histories. This workshop will help you learn how to recognize, discuss, and respond to classism and white privilege.

Co-Chairs:
Lisa Jacobs
Alice Leibowitz

Disability concerns:
Sharon Zohar

Keynote Speakers:
Jerimarie Liesegang

Registration:
Will Marcotte

Sponsorship/Fundraising:
Lisa Jacobs

Volunteer Coordinator:
Alice Leibowitz

Webmaster / Graphic Design:
David Shetterly

Workshop Coordinator:
Alex Gino

Sponsors:

American Friends Service Committee of Connecticut
Bi Tribune
The Bisexual Foundation
Bisexual Resource Center
BiUnity
BiZone
Bodies Like Ours
City of Hartford Commission on LGBT Issues
Conn-Bi-Nation
Connecticut SOFFA
Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition
FACE
Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective
9th International Conference on Bisexuality
New England Leather Alliance
Love Makes a Family
People of Faith for Gay Civil Rights
PFLAG Hartford
POWER
Project 100
True Colors
The Twenty Club