Jessica McKinnon was a guest panelist at Equality Virginia's second event in their series entitled "LGBT STANDING UNITED: Becoming More Inclusive" Arlington, VA on Saturday, June 29, 2008.  Jessica spoke on the topic, "Transgender 101" and also participated in the afternoon brainstorming session focused on finding ways that Equality Virginia could help to support the transgender community in the 2008 presidential election race and beyond.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon participated as a guest panelist in a discussion entitled "Transgender Awareness in the Workplace" sponsored by Salutaris, the National Institutes of Health Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Employees' Forum, as part of a series of events, Noons-in-June: Celebrating Gay Pride Month at the NIH.

 ...more...

Jessica delivered a speech entitled "The Meanies to an ENDA" at Capital Trans Pride 2008. In her speech, she gave a brief history of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and presented the facts behind the controversial decision by the Human Rights Campaign to withdraw support of a fully inclusive version. She went on to describe how the community as a whole was negatively impacted, and that transgender people were only a small fraction of those affected, as well as how a version of ENDA without protections based on gender identity and expression would leave a loophole in the legal system whereby even gay and lesbian community members could continue to be discriminated against, despite the proposed protections based on sexual orientation.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon premiered her second self-authored workshop, "Your Voice—Your Way" at the Trans Health Conference 2008 in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, May 31, 2008.  Following her first successful workshop presented at the same conference a year prior, Jessica rose to the challenge of presenting a practical, interactive, and fun workshop for anyone who wants to be able to transform their voice naturally with the least amount of conscious effort. With practice, one should be able to hold one's new voice indefinitely with no effort, without the need for risky, costly (and often ineffective) voice surgery. Techniques demonstrated will include the isolation of each of the voice's components to more readily invoke just the existing desirable characteristics and replace the undesirable characteristics with new aspects that will define the new voice. Specialized audio equipment will also be used to allow workshop attendees to get a realistic preview of what their own voices might sound like with training and practice. While the workshop is focused mainly on Male-to-Female voice transformation, which is traditionally most challenging, many of the tips and demonstrations are equally applicable to Female-to-Male transformation and anyone else wanting to fine tune their voice.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon was a guest panelist at an Equality Virginia event entitled "LGBT STANDING UNITED: Becoming More Inclusive" at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA on Saturday, April 12, 2008.  Jessica spoke during all three sessions, on the topics "Transgender 101", and "Everything you wanted to know about transgender employment issues, but didn't know who to ask".

 ...more...

After some negotiation of the terms of her personal visit to the studio, Jessica McKinnon spent an hour in person on the air with DC101’s Elliot in the Morning team in Rockville, MD, on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 8:50am (EST). The interview started with a general discussion of life as a transgender person. After the first break, the topic switched gears, focusing mainly on the surgery while they flipped through a series of photographs showing the healing process over the two months since the surgery. During the commercial break that followed, Jessica did a brief "show and tell" for Elliot, Diane, and Flounder (off the air, and in a more private setting). They then returned to the studio after the break and had a brief discussion about their opinions of the surgical results. This was the fifth in a series of interviews with Elliot Segal of DC101 [click here for audio recordings of all of her radio interviews].

 ...more...

A full-page article about Jessica McKinnon appeared in the April 2008 issue of Marie Claire (South African edition). The article is based on the interview with on January 14, 2008 by Associated Magazines, South Africa. The article appears on page 72, and follows directly after a feature about the world's youngest diagnosed transsexual, known as Kim P. (last name abbreviated since she is still a minor). A low-resolution PDF copy of the two articles is available here (with permission from Associated Magazines, from whom the print issue has been available since late March, 2008).

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon was a guest on a workplace transition discussion panel at an event entitled “Transgender Transition: Planning, Communicating and Successfully Managing the Transition of an Employee in Your Workplace” hosted by Out & Equal Workplace Advocates' DC Regional Affiliate on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 6:30 PM in Washington, DC.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon did a postsurgical followup interview on DC101’s Elliot in the Morning radio show from her hospital bed on Tuesday, February 12, 2008, at 4:30am (CST) / 6:30am (EST). The recording of the interview is now available. This was the fourth in a series of interviews with Elliot Segal of DC101 [click here for audio recordings of all of her radio interviews]. Jessica McKinnon is also slated for an in-studio interview in late March or early April, 2008.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon did a presurgical followup interview on DC101’s Elliot in the Morning radio show on Tuesday, February 5, 2008, at 6:50am (EST). The recording of the interview is now available. This was the third in a series of interviews with Elliot Segal of DC101 [click here for audio recordings of all of her radio interviews]. Jessica McKinnon is also slated for an in-studio interview in late March or early April, 2008.

 ...more...

An interview with Jessica McKinnon conducted on January 14, 2008 by Associated Magazines, South Africa, for publication in an upcoming edition of the popular fashion magazine, Marie Claire (South African edition). The interview was to be included as a sidebar feature accompanying a feature about the world's youngest diagnosed transsexual, known as Kim P. (last name abbreviated since she is still a minor). A full transcript of the interview is now available.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon had a followup interview live on DC101’s Elliot in the Morning radio show on Thursday, October 25, 2007, at about 7:20 AM (EDT), followed by a continuation of the interview, as well as some caller questions at 8:05 AM (EDT). The recording of the interview, as well as the Q&A with callers, is now available in two parts: [Part 1] and [Part 2]. This was the second in a series of interviews with Elliot Segal of DC101 [click here for audio recordings of all of her radio interviews]. Jessica McKinnon will have further followup interviews with Elliot Segal on DC101 just before and after her surgery in early February, 2008.

 ...more...

On the evening of Saturday, October 6, 2007, Jessica McKinnon and nearly 100 transgender protesters and their allies gathered outside the annual gala event held by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to protest their lack of opposition to the introduction of a less inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which did not specify protection from discrimination based on gender identity and expression, thereby excluding all transgender people from coverage under the newly proposed legislation.

Interviewed on the scene by both CNN and Fox News, Jessica McKinnon recounted how Joe Solmonese of the HRC had promised to over 1000 transgender attendees of the Southern Comfort Conference just 3 weeks prior that they would actively oppose any such legislation that was not fully inclusive of the whole LGBT community.  Jessica also expressed just how abandoned and betrayed many transgender people felt after the HRC had appeared to be doing little to prevent part of the community from being left behind.

The current status of this effort can be tracked at www.UnitedENDA.org

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon presented her workshop entitled “Making a successful transition at work” at the Southern Comfort Conference 2007 in Atlanta, GA, on Saturday, September 15, 2007.  The workshop was again well-received, as it had been at the 2007 Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia, PA, on April 6, 2007, as well as Capital Trans Pride 2007 on June 3, 2007.  Covering the most important (and often overlooked) considerations in preparing to make a successful gender transition on the job, topics included the creation of a feasible transition timeline with your employer, health insurance coverage, tips for approaching key figures (e.g. HR, department head, supervisor, etc.), and which aspects of the transition (such as rest room usage, performance, policy changes, etc.) should be discussed with whom. Also included were tips on preparing the announcement(s) to staff (verbal and/or written), employee information sessions, as well as some brief discussion of strategies for coming out in a variety of working environments.  [The slides and sample documents referenced in this workshop are available for download from Sample Transition Documents.]  The workshop was well received and the 1.8 MB slide presentation is available in PDF format by using the download link provided here.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon presented her workshop entitled “Making a successful transition at work” at Capital Trans Pride on June 3, 2007 (the first-ever transgender-specific event on the Capital Pride calendar), at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.  The workshop was well received and the 1.8 MB slide presentation is available in PDF format by using the download link provided here.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon presented a workshop entitled “Making a successful transition at work” at the 2007 Trans Health conference in Philadelphia, PA on Friday, April 6 2007. Covering the most important (and often overlooked) considerations in preparing to make a successful gender transition on the job, topics included the creation of a feasible transition timeline with your employer, health insurance coverage, tips for approaching key figures (e.g. HR, department head, supervisor, etc.), and which aspects of the transition (such as rest room usage, performance, policy changes, etc.) should be discussed with whom. Also included were tips on preparing the announcement(s) to staff (verbal and/or written), employee information sessions, as well as some brief discussion of strategies for coming out in a variety of working environments.  [Sample documents referenced in this workshop are available for download from Sample Transition Documents.]  The 1.8 MB slide presentation can be downloaded in PDF format by using this download link.

 ...more...

Jessica McKinnon participated in a panel discussion giving a brief account of her own transition and experience, as well as personally introducing Jamison Green to the audience at the University of Maryland, College Park Campus.  A transcript of Jessica's speech and her introduction of Jamison Green is available. ...more...

Jessica McKinnon’s public media debut: A radio interview on DC101’s Elliot in the Morning discussing her personal experience of male to female transsexual transition. A recording of the full 22 minute interview is available, courtesy of DC101 [click here for audio recordings of all of her radio interviews].

 ...more...