Gender Identity and Expression Summit

GLIDE Church is pleased to present the inaugural Gender Identity and Expression Summit sponsored by the GLIDE PRIDE Team, Friday, May 5 to Sunday, May 7. The kick-off event and three-day summit will take place at GLIDE (330 Ellis Street @ Taylor, San Francisco) and include a movie screening, speeches, panel discussions, an art exhibit, and Sunday Celebrations that will help deepen an understanding of issues related to transgender and gender-expansive people, foster empowerment and solidarity with and among people of faith, and provide a space for people to discuss issues of spirituality and gender expression and identity.

“In a time when the marginalized are feeling more vulnerable to hate and fear, GLIDE stands committed, as it has for over 50 years, to unconditional love and acceptance,” said GLIDE co-founder, Janice Mirikitani.

For more than five decades, GLIDE Church has stood with people who face discrimination and marginalization,” said Bishop Warner H. Brown, Interim Senior Pastor. “The doors of GLIDE Church have always been open to everyone no matter their race, gender, sexuality, religion, age or financial situation.”

All events are free and open to the public, but people should register via Eventbrite.

Schedule of Events:

Sunday, April 30, GLIDE’s Creative Space (first floor off of lobby)

10:15 am to 1:00 pm
GLIDE Community Exhibit: In Their Own Words
Curated by GLIDE co-founder Janice Mirikitani with Outreach Coordinator Teri Harpo, this exhibit of poster art installed in the GLIDE Creative Space celebrates the Transgender community through story and graphic art. The exhibit will showcase GLIDE’s values of unconditional love and acceptance in its beloved, diverse, inclusive community, where everyone’s humanity is celebrated. The transgender community provides an opportunity to learn what it truly means to be sensitive and loving of all gender identities.

Three-day Gender Identity and Expression Summit:

Friday, May 5, GLIDE Church

6:30 pm
Documentary Screening and Discussion: Free Cece
Enormously and tragically relevant today—as so far in 2017 nine transgender people have been killed, all of them people-of-color, eight of them trans feminine—Free Cece confronts the culture of violence surrounding trans women of color. The film relates the firsthand experience of Cece McDonald, told through the voices of Laverne Cox and Cece herself.

There will be a moderated panel discussion immediately following the screening.

Saturday, May 6, GLIDE Church Sanctuary

9:00 am Coffee & Donuts

9:30 am Opening/Welcome

Keynote Address: “Do You See What I See?” by Minister Carmarion D. Anderson, who will talk about how the role of faith can help people learn to truly, and without discrimination and prejudice, see transgender and gender expansive people.

10:30 am
Breakout 1: “Expanding Understandings of Gender” by Lisa Kenney, Executive Director of Gender Spectrum, who will discuss three different aspects of our gender, common terms you might hear and what they mean, the ways in which understandings of gender are evolving, and how all of us can navigate these expanding understandings in our families, work places, and faith communities.

Breakout 2: (TBD)

Noon Break for quick lunch in the area

1:00 pm
Breakout 1: “Fierce Allyship,” with Tarah Fleming, Our Family Coalition.
This workshop is an opportunity to explore our intentions and more importantly our impact as allies to LGBTQ people, people of color and other communities experiencing marginalization daily. Through self-reflection, storytelling and “group think” we will focus on and commit to the most positive practices in conscious allied living.

Breakout 2: “I AM Who I AM by God” by Minister Carmarion D. Anderson. This workshop will offer a spiritual and biblical approach to understanding humankind as being formed both male and female from the beginning of creation and from a Transgender perspective.

2:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Moderated by Rev. Liam Hooper, this conversation workshop will feature a panel of trans and gender-non-conforming GLIDE members who will discuss their lived experiences as gender-variant and the intersections of race and spirituality.

4:00 pm Adjourn


Sunday, May 7, GLIDE Church

9:00 & 11:00 am
GLIDE’s values of radical inclusion and unconditional love of all people will be preached through the words of guests Rev. Liam Hooper and Min. Carmarion D. Anderson during GLIDE’s Sunday Celebrations.

1:00 pm – 3 pm
Workshop: Gender Variance and Spirituality
Rev. Hooper will lead a conversation designed for trans and gender-variant/gender non-binary folks to discuss issues related to spirituality and wholeness. A light lunch will be provided.

WHERE: GLIDE, 330 Ellis Street (at Taylor), San Francisco

FOR MORE INFO: Call (415) 674-6000 or visit GLIDE.org

ABOUT GLIDE:

For more than fifty years, GLIDE has worked to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization. Located in the culturally rich Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, GLIDE serves a diverse cross-section of homeless, low-income and disenfranchised program participants, providing a comprehensive set of programs including:  free meals; HIV/Hep C testing and counseling; housing assistance; domestic violence counseling and abatement; substance abuse recovery; licensed childcare; afterschool and summer programs for youth; a resource center for families; free legal services; and access to free primary and behavioral health care. GLIDE has founded and sustained visionary programming, and achieved tangible results for tens of thousands of individuals and families on the margins, all once thought to be beyond the possible. For additional information, visit glide.org.

ABOUT THE GLIDE PRIDE Team:
The GLIDE PRIDE Team a group for lesbian, trans, gay, bi and queer individuals devoted to social justice and racial justice and more. 
 
Find us on Twitter: @GLIDESF 
Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/GLIDESF

ABOUT MINISTER CARMARION D. ANDERSON
A preacher's kid on both sides, Minister Carmarion D. Anderson felt her own calling to ministry as early as 12 years of age. As a 14-year-old boy, he came out as gay, sheltered and unaware of the differences between sexual orientation and gender identity. She began her male-to-female transition at the young age of 16. By 19, she was legally female. Carmarion is a visible trans-identified person who advocates for Inclusion and Social Justice within the LGBT community. She participates on many steering committees related to Transgender support, gender identity, sexual orientation, and HIV/AIDS resources. She is highly involved with various outreach initiatives while offering educational opportunities to redefine the “T” in Transgender. She is an anointed minister who puts the "active" in activist. Carmarion resides in Austin, Texas and has a Public Health background focusing on HIV/AIDS and other health disparities in communities. She is a well-respected clergy of faith, advocate, and educator and has had national recognition for her work. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Black Transwomen, Inc. and South Regional Minister for TransSaints of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries. Carmarion is the proud parent of one child and enjoys spending time with her adorable grandchild.

ABOUT REV. LIAM HOOPER
Rev. Liam Hooper is an UCC-ordained minister and serves as the national Transgender Community Organizer for Reconciling Ministries Network, a Christian and United Methodist organization. Rev. Hooper is a gender theorist, trans/LGBQ activist-advocate, and theological activist, working to expand understandings of the Hebrew and Christian texts in ways that uncover and reveal the inherent value, dignity, and place of all persons in the vast and diverse continuum of creation. He is the founder of GRASP (Gender Re-visioning and Sexuality Pathways) and Ministries Beyond Welcome. Liam works within and across interfaith communities and secular communities to teach, preach, and otherwise rabble-rouse toward more just, loving, and compassionate communal interdependence. He lives in North Carolina with his patient and understanding spouse and their teenage son, who keeps them on their toes. Liam can be seen throughout NC working for justice, speaking to groups, preaching, and engaging in all manner of holy trouble making for the good of the kingdom-kingdom.

ABOUT LISA KENNEY 
Lisa Kenney is the Executive Director of Gender Spectrum. She’s a featured speaker at conferences and a consultant to organizations and corporations on the changing understanding of gender and the implications this has for parents and families, social institutions and corporations. She provides workshops and other events for adults on gender and co-authored, with Stephanie Brill, The Transgender Teen: A Handbook for Parents and Professionals Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Teens.

About Tarah Fleming, M.A.Ed, CPC
Tarah has over 25 years of experience internationally and locally as an educator and facilitator on topics of social justice, equity literacy, anti-bias education and the dynamics of power and privilege. As a white identified, cisgender, heterosexual mother of a mixed heritage teenager, she brings a radical perspective on allied behavior and a strong desire to work as change agent in multiple solidarity movements. Currently she is the Education Director at Our Family Coalition (OFC) working with LGBTQ families, and previously she was the Co-Director for iPride; an organization dedicated to mixed heritage and multiethnic families. For the past 14 years, she has been a dedicated participant and presenter at the White Privilege Conference (WPC) and developed and co-directed the Youth Action Project (YAP) for high school students, which is now celebrating its tenth year of success at WPC. Tarah also directs her consulting and coaching practice called Start Dialog where she provides personal and professional coaching for educators and activists, as well as facilitated dialog and training for real systems change.

ABOUT THE PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS

GENDER SPECTRUM is a leading national organization whose mission is to create a gender-inclusive world for all children and youth. To accomplish this, we help families, organizations, and institutions increase understandings of gender and consider the implications that evolving views have for each of us.

OUR FAMILY COALITION believes in equity for all. Equity means just inclusion for all members of society. An equitable society is one where everyone, including LGBT families with children, can fully participate. Our Family Coalition works to remove barriers and create positive conditions that allow members of our community to thrive and prosper.