Jennifer Finney Boylan

Designed for colleges, high schools, and other educational venues, this talk opens with a short reading from Boylan’s bestselling memoir, She’s Not There, as well as the anthologyIt Gets Better, and then opens up into a discussion of gender and society. The talk touches upon Transgender 101 (a brief overview of the wide range of gender expression), and then moves outward to address the embracing of diversity in its many forms. The talk concludes with a period of questions and answers with the audience. This presentation has been given at educational venues across the country, including Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Duke, Wesleyan, Middlebury, and Amherst; as well as secondary schools such as Northfield Mount Hermon, Columbus Prep, Phillips Exeter Academy, the Mountain School, and a consortium of Philadelphia area private schools including Haverford, Shipley, Agnes Irwin, and Episcopal Academy. The average running time is 50 minutes, although it has been as short as 20 minutes and as long as an hour and a half, depending upon the sponsor’s needs. (A special version of this talk has been developed for elementary and middle grade students; this has been given at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Manhattan, as well as the Messalonskee Middle School in Maine, among other venues.)

Designed for corporations and small businesses, this talk is an educational tool for human resources managers and others hoping to make a place of employment a more open, knowledgeable, and respectful environment for employees of every stripe. This talk opens with an entertaining and thoughtful reading from Boylan’s published work; it then addresses the variety of human experience, with particular attention (if the sponsor so desires) to issues of sexuality and gender. With specific suggestions on making the workplace a more safe and productive environment for all employees, this talk is useful for managers hoping to expand their employees’ knowledge base about diversity, as well as specifically providing insight on making a transgender employee’s transition smooth, both for the employee as well as those around him or her. The talk concludes, if the sponsor wishes, with a dynamic question and answer session. This talk has been delivered at, among other venues, a series of workshops at Spectrum Health Care in Grand Rapids, Michigan; as part of “leadership grand rounds” at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; at the law firm of Weil Goethals in Manhattan; and as the keynote of the Leading Diversity Conference as part of the Richmond Human Resources Conference. Average running time is 50 minutes, but is adjustable depending on the sponsor’s needs.

Designed for a wide range of audiences—colleges, businesses, bookstores and book clubs, charity fundraisers, and celebrations of the arts—this presentation is a set of readings from Boylan’s published work, including the bestseller She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, as well as her new book, Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenthood in Three Genders. This versatile reading includes short readings, an overview of diversity and transgender issues, and audience discussion. It has been presented in venues as formal as the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and the Wisconsin Book Festival, and as informal as bookstores from coast to coast. Average running time is 25 minutes, but is adjustable depending on the sponsor’s needs.