In concert with a local host the UUA brings you the annual Building Beloved Community Beyond the Binary Conference! Saturday April 18th 9am-4pm ET. A conference where transgender people, allies, advocates, and accomplices can bravely (and with more safety than usual) explore, learn and grow, bear witness, and be witnessed.

This conference includes:

• Keynote presentations given by a transgender/gender nonconforming person,
• Workshops from and for trans and non-binary people, our communities, and our loved onesWorkshops for cisgender people who are ready to learn more and be in solidarity with trans and non-binary people.

2026 schedule — Note There Is No Official Online Opening or Closing

Keynote Speaker: Logan Grendel

Logan Grendel (pictured on the right) is a Multi-Hyphenate Artist, Urban Gardener, Small Business Owner, Revolutionary Organizer, and Black, Nonbinary Witch who believes magic is praxis and vice versa. An NYC lifer, they have lived many lives from freelance photographer to dog care professional to event producer to content creator, approaching all things from a standpoint of creating our own worlds and never accepting what has been placed in front of us as the only option. Follow Logan on instagram @focusedoninfinity

How to Register

Attend online from anywhere or join an official satellite site if one is near you. Click here to register online as an individual attendee. Contact your local congregation to check if they are hosting this event live.

Registration fee: The registration fee for this event is set to a sliding scale from $10-$25-$50-$100. We encourage you to contribute at a level that fits your financial resources. Giving generously helps other people attend who might not otherwise be able to, and also helps us equitably compensate the trans folks who have contributed their skills and labor to make this event happen.

*ATTENTION* Please do not register as an individual online attendee if you plan to meet up in-person. We can only support groups that express an interest in hosting and individuals who register to attend online. If you’re curious about hosting this event in person or feeling a quiet pull to connect with people locally on a more intimate scale we encourage you to have a conversation with your congregation about what that can look like. Please contact the planning team for more information at cleventteam@uua.org

Code of Conduct for Online Participation

Note, you will be asked below to read and agree to follow the Code of Conduct for online participation. Click here to read the document before registering or read it below.

Code of Conduct (online)

As a participant in the Building Beloved Community Beyond the Binary gathering (BBCBB), I hereby agree to the following:

Behave Respectfully – I will engage with others in a way that honors the personhood and experience of all. I will both listen and contribute to conversations. I will make space for others to participate and avoid disruption or distraction by honoring the workshop presentations and topics for discussion.

Self Care and Community Care – I will take care of myself and my needs. I will also take care to engage with this community in an empathetic, understanding, and thoughtful manner.

Practice active and anti-oppressive engagement – I will make a conscious effort to engage with and understand what others are sharing. I will be attentive to how my interactions may impact others. Words and actions have been used to historically oppress people and therefore certain words and actions can be activating of traumatic or hurtful experiences. I will be mindful of this and participate in ways that are respectful and considerate.

Show Up – Understanding that we are in a time of global uprising against state sponsored violence and that these crises disproportionately impact some of us based on our identity and social location, I will cultivate grace and practice patience. I will be mindful to side with love by showing up for others in this time.

Be Present to Truth – We hold multiple truths gleaned from our lived experiences. None of our experiences, especially those of us who have been historically marginalized, are up for debate. I will be mindful of this during my interpersonal interactions during BBCBB.

We will avoid the following harmful forms of expression:

• Offensive language related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, pregnancy status, veteran status, political affiliation, marital status, body size, age, race, national origin, ethnic origin, immigration status, language, religion, or other identity marker.
• Threats of violence or aggressive behavior of any kind toward any individual or group.
• Trolling; deliberate provocative, offensive, and/or disrespectful statements (commentary, images, GIFs) intended to derail conversation.
• Stalking or following — online or in the physical world
• Sexual harassment in any form, including sexual images, GIFs, sexual language, virtual contact without consent, and inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
• Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
• Revealing any aspect of the identity of a person who experiences marginalization without their consent.
• Humor that evokes any of the above.
• Adults should never be alone with an unrelated child at this event, whether in-person or virtually. We ask that adults not private-message youth on any Virtual BBCBB platform. It is appropriate to interact with youth in the main Zoom workshop chat with comments directed to Everyone, where multigenerational registrants are all participating. It is not appropriate to engage in one-to-one communication between an adult and a youth.

As a registered attendee of BBCBB, I understand and agree that the content of the workshops shall not be recorded or distributed for private or public viewing without direct consent of the workshop presenters.

We will not be complicit when observing activity that is deliberately antagonistic and harmful.

Violations of this Agreement and Practices will prompt any/all of the following action steps:

• The participant will be contacted privately with a warning about their offense and given the opportunity to improve their communication for the benefit of all.
• The participant will be contacted and their content (i.e. chat dialogue, app or social media post) may be turned off.
• The participant will be removed from the space.

Pronouns

Another way we care for our community is to respect people’s pronouns. Pronouns are how we refer to someone besides using that person’s name ~ this is a natural part of the English language that everyone uses every day. Common pronouns are: I, me, my, you, your, y’all, he, his, her, herself, they, them, it, its, xe, xem, fae, faer, and many more. Using the correct pronouns for someone is one way we show people around us the basic respect everyone deserves.

At this conference and in other places, pronouns may be designated on buttons or name tags. If someone does not indicate their pronoun, please use their name in lieu of a pronoun.

If you use the incorrect pronoun for someone, or realize you did not confirm someone’s pronouns before speaking about them: apologize and/or thank the person for their patience, check that person’s name tag or clothing for a provided pronoun, and rephrase your statement with the correct pronoun(s) or name, and continue with what you were saying.

This happens to all of us and we get better at it by practicing and accepting that mistakes are a part of learning – we cannot shame ourselves into doing better. Also, it can be a deep form of harm to misgender (see definition on next page) someone, especially repeatedly, and so we care for one another by making concerted efforts to get others’ pronouns and other terms of address correct.

General Cancellation Policy

All cancellation requests for any paid congregational life event or training (i.e. OWL or Renaissance module) must be submitted in writing using this refund request form.

Refunds:

• Refund requests made before the event registration deadline will be eligible for a refund, minus a $5 administrative fee.
• Refund requests made after the registration deadline, but before the event date will be eligible for a 50% refund of the registration fee.
• For refund requests made within one week of the event due to illness or emergencies, full refunds will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
• Refunds will not be provided after the event for no-shows. Note, if you registered for an event only to receive the event recording and resources you will still receive all of these resources.
• There is no penalty for finding someone to replace you if you cannot attend. Please inform the program staff of the replacement attendee’s details.

Cancellation Due to Extraordinary Circumstances:

In the case of event cancellation due to low enrollment or unprecedented conditions such as high COVID-19 infection rates in the hosting area, poor weather conditions, acts by government authorities, natural disasters, epidemic or pandemic emergencies, registration fees will be 100% refunded.  We strongly recommend securing travel insurance for instances like these in your travel planning.

We ask for your understanding in respecting this policy, which supports our organizational efforts and expenses

Copy the iCalendar (ICS) link address to subscribe to this event (or download the file to import it) in a program which supports the iCal format.