Gender is a fundamental aspect of the human experience—but what is its purpose? In their talk, Laura A. Jacobs talks about their experience transitioning and how they arrived at the nuanced gender they live today—female and male, both and neither. Laura discusses the unprecedented physical and legislative assault the transgender and nonbinary community are facing and how tolerance and acceptance is only the first step to creating a safe world where trans and nonbinary people can thrive.
Laura A. Jacobs, LCSW-R (pronouns: she/he/they/none) is a trans and genderqueer psychotherapist, speaker, author and activist specializing in gender and sexual diversity including transgender, gender nonbinary and LGBTQIA+ issues more broadly, as well as kink/BDSM, nonmonogamy and sexworkers. They serve as chair of the Board of Directors for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. Jacobs has been featured multiple times in The New York Times as well as other print media, and on NPR, MSNBC, NBCNewsOnline, SiriusXM, CBSNews, Mic.com, and has spoken at countless organizations, conferences and universities.

Jacobs founded the Gender Dysphoria Affirmative Working Group and co-authored “You’re in the Wrong Bathroom!”: And 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions About Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People,” published by Beacon Press (2017), and has contributed chapters to several other books, including three published in 2019. Jacobs is a member of the Kink Clinical Guidelines Workgroup and serves on several editorial boards. They were recently presented the 2019 Standard of Excellence Award by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx