The Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference was founded in 2001 and now spans three days in June each year. It is the largest transgender-specific conference in the world (over 2400 attended in 2012) and is presented by Mazzoni Center.
IWG executive director, Chris Paige, co-founded the spirituality track in 2009, bringing conversation, networking, and spiritual observance into the space. Opportunities include Christian (incl. Black Church, Orthodox and Catholic, as well as other varieties), Jewish, Muslim, Eastern traditions (e.g. meditation and yoga), Indigenous traditions, as well as opportunities to discuss spirituality in ways that are not confined by religious tradition.
Why at PTHC?
There are few places in the world where people of spirit can gather to learn about transgender communities in all of our diversity -- not simply to hear about diversity from one or a few presenters, but to walk among transgender people from a variety of races and life experiences.
PTHC hosts gender non-conforming children with their familes, youth and young adults, as well as older community members with trans-feminine, trans-masculine, and non-binary gender experiences. Presenters include national transgender leaders and grassroots organizers, as well as medical, mental health, and legal providers. By gathering in the middle of the largest, transgender-specific conference in the world, we are able to encourage interaction with leading experts from a variety of disciplines who can help conference participants to contextualize the role of spirituality in the lives of transgender communities.
IWG Highlights at PTHC
IWG has played an innovative role in developing the spirituality track at PTHC, since 2009, inviting new voices to expand the conversation.
2009
Inaugural Spirituality Track
First IWG Networking Pre-event
Opportunities for Meditation, Worship, Ritual become a part of PTHC
Hosted Peterson Toscano's Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible
2010
First Black Church Town Hall Meeting
Yoga joins the array of spiritual opportunities
First Inclusive Catholic-Orthodox Mass
Hosted book launch of Noach Dzmura's Balancing on the Mechitza
2011
Chris Paige as 10th Anniversary PTHC conference chair
Chief Bob Red Hawk brings greetings from the Lenape Nation for the first time
Nicole Garcia brings the Latin@ Roundtable to PTHC
Partnership with the Transgender People of Color Coalition for the IWG Pre-Event
2012
Louis Mitchell offers keynote address
Fourth annual Shabbat Service expands to include the first annual Shabbat Dinner, hosted by the new Jewish Programming Group
First official Muslim presence, including daily prayer and Jumu'a
Viewing of Two-Spirits film, hosted by the new Indigenous Programming Group
Pre-Event focuses on "The Spirit of Activism," faciltiated by Teo Drake
Save the Date: Philly Trans-Health Conference 2013
Join Transfaith at Philly Trans-Health 2013 in Philadelphia, PA -- June 13-15, 2013. Please don't forget to plan your travel to join us for our annual PTHC pre-event on Wednesday, June 12, 2013.
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Final Count for PTHC 2012: Over 2400 attendees
The final count for attendees at PTHC 2012 was over 2400 people. That is a 20% increase compared to the previous two years. Transfaith was there in the middle of it!
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