Trans Events Hijacks IFGE Conference
Thursday, December 18th, 2008By Monica F. Helms
For 22 years, the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) has held a yearly conference for transgender people, its allies and the people who treat and help us. The community has come to see the IFGE Conference as a great place to get information on medical issues, political issues, spouse and children’s issues, and presentation issues. People from all over the world gather to share ideas and to network with others in the trans community. The Trinity and Virginia Prince Awards have been given out at these conferences.
For ten of the last 22 years, IFGE has enlisted the assistance of a company known as Trans Events to facilitate the conferences. As time went on, this turned out to not be a very good idea. Trans Events management ruled the conference with an iron fist, causing problems with IFGE’s reputation within the community. Any of the local people who decided to volunteer quickly discovered that the Trans Event management would order them around like personal servants.