S. Bear Bergman

S. Bear Bergman is a writer, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. Ze has published essays, poems, and even the occasional bit of short fiction in a variety of books and magazines, and is a book reviewer at ButchDykeBoy, as well as a perennial favorite and featured reader at queer spoken word events, such as GenderCrash.

Bear is a frequent lecturer and at colleges and universities regarding issues relating to gender and sexuality, and has advised the staff of numerous institutions on their policies regarding transgendered and transsexual students. An observant Jew, Bear also speaks extensively about how hir religious and cultural lives have shaped one another, and the intersection of identities, especially as it relates to being both Jewish and queer.

A longtime activist on behalf of anyone who wants to learn and be different at the same time (particularly queer/trans youth and students), Bear is currently working on the creation of a national, web-based, Queer Mentoring Project. Less recently, ze was also one of the five original founders of the first Gay/Straight Alliances, a frequent lecturer at high schools and colleges on the subject of making schools safe for GLBT students, and a founding commission member of what is now called the Massachusetts Safe Schools Project. Bear also considers hir recent mastery of the merengue a notable achievement, but is aware that probably not everyone agrees.

Bear was educated at Hampshire College - where ze studied solo performance with Peggy Shaw of Split Britches Theater - and at the University Of Massachusetts. Ze currently resides with hir beloved wife, Nicole, in Northampton, Massachusetts, among a wonderful created, queer family.

Mike Hernandez

Michael ("Mike") Hernandez in trans years has been around since the dinosaurs came (translation 1990). Mike is a queer, bear, transman with a quirky sense of humor who pays the bills by practicing law, but whose true calling is baking and pastry. Mike has presented on the topic of sexuality at a number of trans conferences and has written articles appearing in FORGE and the FTMI newsletter. Writing credits include contributions in From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond by Morty Diamond (Manic Press); Bears on Bears by Ron Suresha (Alyson Publications), Transliberation: Beyond Pink And Blue, edited by Leslie Feinberg (Beacon Press), Dagger: On Butch Women, edited by Lily Burana, Roxxie, and Linnea Due (Cleis Press), and The Second Coming, edited by Pat(rick) Califia and Robin Sweeney. Writings and details available at www.otherbear.com. These days his time is occupied by trying to learn the ins-N-outs of grandfatherhood (yes he carries photos in his wallet), ferreting out recipes that will knock his socks off, and spending quality time with his partner Sky Renfro, gf Michele, and his pup Sugar the brown-eyed-beauty.

Richard Juang

A writer living in Cambridge , MA , Richard M. Juang serves as the co-chair of the Advisory Board for the National Center for Transgender Equality and is a member of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. Designated male-at-birth, Richard identifies as genderqueer. He is currently working on a play titled, Boy Parts.

Raven Kaldera

Raven Kaldera is a shaman, an astrologer, a farmer and homesteader, and an FTM transgendered intersexual activist. He is the author of too many books to list, including "Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook", and is the co-editor of "Best Transgender Erotica". 'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.

Jay Sennett

Jay Sennett is an activist, writer, and cartoonist living in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is also the founder of Homofactus Press, a global, digital micropress dedicated to publishing books by, for, and about trans masculine experiences around the globe. His anthology, Self-Organizing Men, published by Homofactus Press, has been called "liberating" and "a highly valued collection of stories" about diverse masculine experiences. Self-Organizing Men will debut in Sydney, Australia later this year while Homofactus Press will be publishing Eli Clare's collection of prose and poetry, The Marrow's Telling, and King Guise, a photo-essay collection dedicated to drag kings of color.

Max Wolf Valerio

Max Wolf Valerio is an iconoclastic poet and performer who is also a long-transitioned transman.  His ancestry is American Indian (Blackfoot Confederacy – Blood/Kainai band) on his mother’s side, while his father is Hispano from Northern New Mexico and descended from the Conversos and crypto-Jews of the Sephardic diaspora following the Expulsion.  He began medical transition in 1989.