I attended the 2012 Philadelphia Trans Health Conference (PTHC) for the second time in two years, and similar to my experience in 2011, I was not disappointed. The conference was huge with an attendance of over 2000 people, making it one of the largest, if not the largest trans conference in the country.
This is a great conference for a science geek like me and I appreciated the focus on health and the quantity and quality of workshops and vendors. In addition, one aspect of this year’s conference that really struck me was its ‘pairing’ with another event that was being held at the same time in the convention center, the 2012 Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con!
Gender variant people mingling with spandex-clad folks dressed up as comic book and science fiction/fantasy characters? I don’t know whether the scheduling of the PTHC with the comic con was a coincidence or was by design, but the two groups seemed (to me) to be a great match. I mean, that’s two communities that know how to give a big raspberry to society’s ‘norms’ about identity and self-expression!
In addition to that tidbit, I have some other notes and observations from the 2012 PTHC that I will collate into a follow-up post. Stay tuned for more…
–ATM
