Moderator: Shane Windmeyer, Campus Pride

Guest Presenters: Genny Beemyn, Ph.D, Director, The Stonewall Center, UMass Amherst & Nancy Jean Tubbs, Director, LGBT Resource Center, University of California, Riverside

Description: Although transgender and gender nonconforming people have become more visible on college campuses and in the media and popular culture over the last decade, many cisgender (non-transgender) faculty, staff, and students lack even a basic understanding of the lives of transgender individuals.  Clearly work must be done to educate campus communities.  This webinar will focus on how institutions can implement a campus-wide transgender ally training program or offer transgender ally training sessions for specific departments and offices.  The presenters, who have extensive experience conducting transgender-focused trainings and presentations on college campuses, will discuss their strategies for educating different audiences and share the handouts and exercises that they use in different training sessions.

Learning Outcomes:

Participants will gain knowledge on:

• Transgender experiences, based in national research, as it relates broadly to transgender people and specifically to colleges and universities across the country;
• Best practices for presenting about transgender people;
• and obtain recent resources for conducting transgender ally trainings on their campuses.

Guest Presenters Biography:

Genny Beemyn has published and spoken extensively on the experiences and needs of transgender people, particularly the lives of gender nonconforming students.  Ze has written or edited six books/journal issues, including a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Homosexuality on “LGBTQ Campus Experiences.”  Genny’s most recent work, written with Sue Rankin, is The Lives of Transgender People (Columbia University Press, 2011).  The director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ze is also a board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute and an editorial board member of the Journal of LGBT Youth, the Journal of Bisexuality, the Journal of Homosexuality, and the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.  Genny has a Ph.D. in African American Studies and Master's degrees in African American Studies, American Studies, and Higher Education Administration.

Nancy Tubbs has directed the University of California, Riverside's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center since 2000. The center provides support, education, and advocacy regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. Key transgendger milestones at UCR include: gender neutral housing option (the first at a public institution for all students); Trans Allies program; trans-inclusive student health insurance; and the Trans Remembrance Display. Nancy grew up in Texas, and earned an M.S. in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University. She has served on the Executive Board of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, and advises an area youth group Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance.