FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 2009
CONTACTS:
Vicki Estrada
Host Committee Chair
2009 Transgender Leadership Summit (619) 980-0065
vestrada@estradalandplan.com
Masen Davis
Executive Director
Transgender Law Center
(323) 309-0459
masen@transgenderlawcenter.org
California Activists Explore Transgender Civil Rights at San Diego Conference
SAN DIEGO -- More than 200 transgender community members and allies will meet in San Diego on March 27, 2009 for the 4th annual Transgender Leadership Summit. The Summit comes at a critical time for the transgender rights movement, as the current economic crisis has made transgender people even more vulnerable to un- and under-employment, lack of health care access, discrimination, and violence. Even before the most recent downturn, a 2008 study conducted by the Transgender Law Center found that transgender Californians were twice as likely to earn wages below the federal poverty line compared to the state's general population.
"We are thrilled to host this year's Transgender Leadership Summit in San Diego," said Host Committee Chair Vicki Estrada. "Given the state of our economy and with a more hopeful federal administration, it is critical that transgender people and our allies learn the skills necessary to ensure that our voices are heard in discussions regarding local, state and federal reform."
Presented by Equality California, the Transgender Law Center (TLC), and more than twenty community-based organizations, the Leadership Summit has become a major event for identifying and building transgender community leaders statewide. The Summit provides grassroots activists and their allies with an unprecedented opportunity to create a unified voice to advance the movement for transgender equality and to address the barriers transgender people face in their personal and professional lives. Attendees will participate in workshops to learn skills they need to be effective activists, including how to facilitate public policy change, encourage economic development, educate the media, conduct budget advocacy, and build local capacity. As part of its leadership development emphasis, the Summit is planned by a volunteer committee of community members and activists, with assistance from TLC. The Astraea Lesbian Fund for Justice generously provided fellowships to ensure that low-income transgender women activists have the resources to attend the Summit.
This year's Summit will feature keynote and plenary speeches by a diverse group of leading activists including Cecilia Chung (San Francisco Human Rights Commission), Masen Davis (TLC Executive Director), Sylvia Guerrero (mother of murdered teen Gwen Araujo), Mara Keisling (Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality), Miss Major (Organizing Director of the TGI Justice Project), Shannon Minter (Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights), and Susan Stryker (renowned historian, and author of Transgender Histories ).
The Summit will also offer significant skills-building workshops that address many of the pivotal issues facing the transgender community today, including health care and insurance, intergenerational mentoring, developing and sustaining support groups, advocacy for hate crime victims, employment rights, leadership development, public speaking, media work, and international human rights advocacy, among others.
"The Transgender Leadership Summit gave us the foundation we needed to begin organizing grassroots community activism in our corner of the state," notes Ben Hudson, Summit volunteer and organizer of the Sacramento Transgender Coalition.
The Summit takes off at 7pm Friday night, March 27 th in the PC West Theater at UC San Diego. Workshops and plenary sessions will take place all day Saturday and Sunday morning. There will be a special Saturday night reception at the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Center featuring performances by Peterson Toscano and Coyote Grace. Registration for the Summit is still open at http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/summit2009.html.
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Equality California Institute (EQCAI) educates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and the public at large about issues impacting the LGBT community and our allies. Established in 2000, EQCAI organizes and empowers individuals, communities and allied groups to work proactively for fairness, equality and justice. www.eqcai.org
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. Every day we connect transgender people and their families to technically sound and culturally competent legal services, increase acceptance and enforcement of laws and policies that support California's transgender communities, and work to change laws and systems that fail to incorporate the needs and experiences of transgender people. www.transgenderlawcenter.org
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