A Conversation About Transgender Lives

The impact of transition for a transgender individual extends far beyond the self to their families, friends, colleagues and community. UNC Charlotte’s Aliaga-Buchenau Witness in Residence Initiative will host a community conversation that explores transgender lives in the context of family, friends, and communities. The event will take place that the UNC Charlotte Center City Auditorium on April 9, 2019 from 6:30pm-8:00pm.  The Witness in Residence Initiative, now in its fourth year, provides education about human rights and social justice for the UNC Charlotte campus and the greater Charlotte community.  It seeks to encourage conversations about issues pertaining to human rights and social justice in the U.S. and globally. Previous initiatives have focused on the death penalty, on Syrian refugees in the U.S., and on life in Communist East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The witnesses in the conversation are:

• Rice, a transgender man living in Charlotte who has conducted research on HIV/AIDS in the transgender community in San Francisco and now teaches science in a local high school. He is a board member for Time Out Youth, a local organization that provides a safe space for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) teens.
   
• Rev. Debra Hopkins, a transgender woman who is an ordained minister as well as a motivational speaker and teacher who addresses issues of gender equality. She is director of There's Still Hope, a transitional home for the trans community established to help end homelessness in Charlotte. Ms. Hopkins has written a memoir, Not Until You Have Walked in My Shoes – My Story.
   
• Debra Bercuvitz, a lifelong lesbian who has been partnered with a transgender man for 27 years. She has published and spoken extensively about this experience to college and national audiences. Her relationship transition was documented as the cover story of The New York Times Magazine in October 2001. Debra holds a master’s degree in public health from UNC-Chapel Hill and lives in Massachusetts. She coordinates substance use interventions for the Department of Public Health’s maternal and child health bureau.

For additional details, contact Dr. Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau