Out Fest Los Angeles: Trans, Nonbinary, & Intersex Summit

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Content Warning: This story contains mention of sexual assault and suicidal ideation.

Now in its 6th year, the newly renamed Outfest Los Angeles Trans, Nonbinary & Intersex Summit will showcase a multitude of trans, nonbinary & intersex experiences as a vision for the future of our lives. This year’s summit is a time-capsule titled Manifesting Our Future – a call to action to imagine ourselves 50 to 100 to 1000 years from now. While trans, nonbinary and intersex people have garnered varying levels of visibility, the goal of this year’s summit is to unpack how visibility can shape our collective future. With visibility comes backlash and greater threats to our safety and belonging; but visibility also brings the power to imagine and the responsibility to uplift each other. To manifest the future, you envision it. Storytelling is a manifestation of our imagination and the futures we dream of as trans, nonbinary and intersex people. The future is ours, the future is here, and right now more than ever, we have the power to manifest it.

The 2022 6th Annual Outfest Trans, Nonbinary & Intersex Summit will feature four back to back programs:

Keynote Speaker: Raquel Willis

Raquel Willis is a Black transgender activist, award-winning writer, and media strategist dedicated to elevating the dignity of marginalized people, particularly Black transgender people. Throughout her career, Raquel has held impactful positions like Director of Communications for The Ms. Foundation, executive editor of Out magazine, and a national organizer for Transgender Law Center (TLC).

In 2018, she founded Black Trans Circles, a project of TLC, focused on developing the leadership of Black trans women in the South and Midwest by creating healing justice spaces to work through oppression-based trauma and incubating community organizing efforts to address anti-trans murder and violence.

During her time at Out, she published the Trans Obituaries Project to highlight the epidemic of violence against trans women of color and developed a community-sourced 13-point framework to end the epidemic. This project won a GLAAD Media Award. Raquel is a thought leader on gender, race and intersectionality. She’s experienced in online publications, organizing marginalized communities for social change, non-profit media strategy and public speaking while using digital activism as a major tool of resistance and liberation.

She will be releasing her debut memoir about her coming of identity and activism with St. Martin’s Press in 2022.

Filmmaker Perspectives

Filmmaker Perspectives showcases short films from emerging trans, nonbinary & intersex filmmakers, using film to explore the multitude of trans, nonbinary and intersex experience. Each short is followed by a moderated conversation with the filmmakers or talent, and offers a glimpse into a particular theme or issue.

Filmmaker Perspective #1 | The Anti-Hero

Fraud by Zen Pace and Dana Aliya Levinson (14 mins)

A trans rocker girl, getting by on petty credit card theft, is forced to question who she wants to be when her latest target surprises her with an unforeseen proposition.

Q&A with Zen Pace and Dana Aliya Levinson, moderated by Zackary Drucker

Filmmaker Perspective #2 | Our Bodies, Our Choice

My Abortion Saved My Life by TransLash Media, created by Imara Jones, directed and produced by Ruby Rose Collins and Tiler Wilson, featuring Cazembe Murphy Jackson (9 mins)

Cazembe Murphy Jackson (he/him), a Black trans activist living in Atlanta, Georgia, shares why his access to abortion was vital to his life. [CW/TW: sexual assault, rape, homophobia, and transphobia]

Trans Bodies, Trans Choices by TransLash Media, created by Imara Jones, directed and produced by Ruby Rose Collins and Tiler Wilson, featuring Jack Qu’emi Gutíerrez (7 mins)

After an unplanned pregnancy and unsuccessful Plan B contraceptive, Jack Qu’emi (they/them) sought abortion access in central Florida.

Virtual introduction by Imara Jones. Q&A with Cazembe Murphy Jackson and Jack Qu’emi Gutíerrez, moderated by Jaden Fields

Artist to Artist Conversation | Toward Visibility: Why Intersex Representation Matters

Featuring a live story performance from “The Moth” storyteller, actress & intersex activist Tatenda Ngwaru, and a sneak-peek look at “A Study of Self Hyponsis,” an upcoming book of poetry and visual album from Salvadoran-American filmmaker & intersex advocate River Gallo – this artist to artist conversation showcases two brilliant intersex artists and brings them together in conversation on why intersex representation matters and what we can do to move toward greater visibility for intersex stories.

Live Story Performance by Tatenda Ngwaru (10 mins)

Sneak Peek from “A Study of Self Hypnosis” by River Gallo (3 mins)

This multi-media project includes a debut book of poetry and visual album exploring trans, intersex and non-binary identities as both gender expressions and philosophies of liminality and transcendence. Through personal and confessional storytelling, "A Study of Self Hypnosis" investigates the kaleidoscopic and psychedelic journey of transition, reckoning with self-induced trances, dictated by personal trauma, addiction, sexual abuse, romance, and set free by mysticism.

Artist to Artist Conversation between River Gallo and Tatenda Ngwaru

Comedy Showcase | We Are Not A Joke… But We Are Funny

Trans, nonbinary and intersex people are not a joke, but we can certainly deliver them. There is humor in our experience. We are Not A Joke… But We Are Funny is a comedy showcase featuring some of the funniest trans, nonbinary and intersex comedians today - emceed by D’Lo, featuring Nori Reed, Jes Tom, 7g, River Butcher, and Kai.

Programmed by: Kieran Medina

Special thanks: Zackery Alexander Stephens, Zackary Drucker, River Gallo, Brian Michael Smith, Neil Landau, Valerie Stadler, Farhaad Virani, Keisha Zollar, Nova Cypress Black, Chris Renfro, Raul Martin Romero and Good Robot of Bad Robot Productions