The 2022 Southern Trans Health and Wellness Conference was a rich learning experience where community members, family members, advocates, and health professionals learned from each other about ways to improve the well-being of transgender, non-binary, intersex, and gender expansive people.
Highlights from this year included keynote speaker Rebby Kern, Director of Education Policy, EqualityNC (they/them). Rebby inspired participants to “imagine a world where transgender and queer people are thriving” and to fight for inclusive healthcare. In addition, the conference featured two diverse panel discussions – one comprised of community and family members discussing lived experiences and the other including a multidisciplinary group of health professionals discussing best practices. Breakout sessions included many presentations from people with lived experience and from different age groups.
The Southern Trans Health and Wellness Conference is designed to highlight authentic community partnerships, best practices, and innovative research to support the health, racial equity, equality and wellbeing of transgender, non-binary, intersex and gender-expansive communities. Our goal is to bring together members of the transgender, non-binary, intersex, and gender expansive-community, health care professionals, educators, advocates and researchers to provide a collaborative environment for supporting health and wellness through a social justice and racial equity lens.