Transcending Gender: Bodies & Lives

Transcending Gender: Bodies and Lives addresses the intersection of gender and transgender people as part of the larger LGBT acronym. Exploring the interconnectedness and separateness of gender and sexual orientation, the exhibit presents language and etiquette addressing transgender people and subjects, as well as a timeline of the cultural and human rights struggles of transgender people in the United States. Transcending Gender: Bodies and Lives also highlights ongoing issues in the movement for gender and sex equality and roles in which transgender people have played in the gay and lesbian liberation movement.

The exhibit features excerpts and raw footage compiled for the making of the 2013 documentary film Just Gender, produced by George Zuber and Mona Pittenger and narrated by Emmy Award-Winner Bebe Neuwirth. The film features interviews with transgender people, their family members and friends, health care experts, community leaders and others who work with the transgender community. One screen features five people with very different lives from across the country that share their stories and observations about life as a transgender person. A second screen presents a, 23-minute, shortened version of the film Just Gender, edited by George Zuber, which has been designated for high school students. Stonewall National Education Project is proud to have helped develop the instructor manuals for this important and timely teaching tool, in support of LGBT diversity.

The exhibit also includes a take home resource guide comprised of a glossary of terms surrounding issues of gender identity and information on “etiquette and ally building” compiled to explain best practices in welcoming and supportive language and behavior towards transgender people.  The exhibit features profiles of transgender individuals of achievement and includes posters from the first ever government funded transgender rights awareness campaign featured in 200 city bus shelter ads in the District of Columbia in 2012. Also featured are artifacts housed in the permanent collection of Stonewall National Archives, including a jacket pioneering transgender activist Denise Norris, the co-founder of The Transsexual Menace and an embroidered shirt worn by history-making gay and transgender activist and drag queen Jose Julio Sarria. The Jose Julio Sarria shirt is part of the premiere of the Brian R. McNaught and Raymond L. Struble, Historical Collection, housed at the Stonewall National Archives.

Stonewall National Museum & Archives presents an exhibit titled Transcending Gender: Bodies & Lives. The exhibit will run from Tuesday, September 8 – October 19at Stonewall National Museum – Wilton Manors Gallery at 2157 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL. Gallery hours are Tuesdays – Sundays from 2 pm – 10 pm. The exhibit is FREE and open to the public. A private VIP reception for donors and invited guests of Stonewall National Museum & Archives will take place on Monday, September 8, 2014. Transcending Gender: Bodies & Lives is presented with support from Bank United, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Ketel One Vodka.