AZStarNet.com – By Stephanie Innes – Arizona Daily Star
Tucson next year will be the first Arizona city to host an annual international gathering that focuses on transgender awareness.
“Transgender 2008” is expected to bring at least 350 people from around the world to Tucson April 1-5.
The 22nd annual conference, sponsored by the Massachusetts-based International Foundation for Gender Education, will include a “town meeting” where anyone in Tucson will be welcome to join a dialogue about transgender issues. The foundation has hired a Pennsylvania-based conference company, TransEvents USA Inc., to plan and coordinate the event.
The conference has grown from a handful of people since its inception. Organizers decided to hold the event in Tucson at the suggestion of members of the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, a program of Wingspan, which is Tucson’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community center, TransEvents Executive Director S. Kristine James said. James confirmed that the gathering has never been held in Arizona.