LinkIndeed, telling stories seemed to be the unofficial focus of the conference, in order to expose hurts and injustices, heal oneself, and understand one another. Jennifer Finney Boylan, who gave the opening address on Saturday morning, and the author of She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, put it most succinctly when she said, "It's impossible to hate someone whose story you know."
Other keynote speakers included Esther Morris Leidoff, an intersex activist; Matt Kailey, author of Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience; Samuel Thoron, PFLAG national president; and Lani Ka'ahumanu, co-editor of the classic Bi Any Other Name. Each of them had many stories to tell: Ka'ahumanu's talk was perhaps the most poetic, as she urged the attendees to "go to that naked place where fear and the thirst for justice live within our souls."
