The Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference (formerly Philadelphia Trans Health Conference) was an annual conference related to

transgender health ''Transgender Health'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering transgender health. It was established in 2016 and is published by Mary Ann Liebert. The editor-in-chief is Robert Garofalo (Northwestern University). Abstracting and i ...

and wellness for transgender people, advocates, and healthcare providers. It was run by the

Mazzoni Center Mazzoni Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit health care provider in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that serves the LGBTQ community. About Mission To provide quality comprehensive health and wellness services in an LGBTQ-focused environment, whi ...

and was the largest free trans-focused conference in the world. On April 4th, 2025, organizers announced that the conference would be cancelled, shifting to year-round programming.

History

The conference emerged in response to the lack of healthcare resources and access for the transgender community in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. An April 1999 survey conducted by the Philadelphia Transgender Health Action Coalition (which would later become the Mazzoni Center) exposed problems of transgender people being denied treatment for general healthcare problems, needing to educate providers on transgender healthcare issues, and a lack of understanding of transgender issues in HIV service providers specifically. PTHAC, the Philadelphia EMA HIV Transgender/Transsexual Caucus, and the Philadelphia AIDS Consortium partnered to plan and fund a 3-day conference to address these issues. In the Summer of 2001, the organizations formed a planning committee consisting of Charlene Arcila, June Dizon, Ben Singer, and Ron Powers. Due to a lack of funding, the conference was made a single day rather than three. The first conference, entitled "Trans-Health for the New Millennium," took place on May 5, 2002. From 2006 until 2020, it was held at the

Philadelphia Convention Center The Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center, commonly known simply as the Philadelphia Civic Center, was a convention center complex located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It developed out of a series of buildings dedicated to expanding ...

2020-2022

Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the Mazzoni Center postponed the conference that was scheduled to occur that year between June 23–25. They chose to move the conference to a virtual format in 2021, and again in 2022.

2023

On April 5, 2023, the Mazzoni Center announced on the conference's website that the team would be using 2023 as a planning and development year and that the conference would not be taking place that year. They hosted a community conversation in partnership with the Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs on May 3 of that year.

2024

In March 2024, the Mazzoni Center announced that the conference would be resuming in-person with a limited capacity of 1,000 participants. Unlike in previous years, the location was also changed to the

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

campus.

2025

On April 4th, 2025, the Mazzoni Center announced that the conference would be shifting from a single event to year-round programming, feeling that it would best serve the community in light of the

second Trump administration Donald Trump's second and current tenure as the president of the United States began upon his inauguration as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. On his first day, Trump pardoned about 1,500 people convicted of offenses in the Janua ...

's attacks on transgender people. With that decision, they also renamed the organization to the Charlene Arcila Trans Wellness Collective in onor of the conference's founder.

Content

The conference hosts a variety of activities, such as workshops, religious services, certifications, and vendor spaces. Attendees can take the general, professional, and continuing education tracts. In 2012, the conference also launched a youth summit with workshops and social events specifically for youth.{{Cite web , date=2012-05-23 , title=Trans Health Conference Returns to Philly , url= https://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/05/23/trans-health-conference-returns-philly/ , website=Philadelphia Magazine

References

External links

William Way LGBT Community Center archives https://www.waygay.org/archives-collections Official website https://www.mazzonicenter.org/conference LGBTQ conferences LGBTQ culture in Philadelphia Conventions in Philadelphia Transgender health care Transgender events in the United States Transgender events