First Event Transgender Conference Set for Jan. 22

The First Event transgender conference, an annual event hosted by Tiffany Club of New England, will present two Community Service Awards on Thursday, January 22. Each year the conference recognizes one or more who have made outstanding contributions to the transgender community. In 2015, Community Service Awards will be presented to Jennifer Levi and John Warrener.

"We are so pleased to be able to recognize these two who have done so much for our transgender community over so many years," said Grace Stevens, Co-Chair of First Event 2015. "The diversity of our awards this year, going to a lawyer and a retailer, shows the range of services instrumental to transgender journeys."

Jennifer Levi is the director of the GLAD Transgender Rights Project and a nationally recognized expert on transgender legal issues. She co-edited "Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy," the first book to address legal issues facing transgender people in the family law context and provide practitioners the tools to effectively represent transgender clients.

Levi has served as counsel in a number of precedent-setting cases establishing basic rights for transgender people, including: O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue which established that medical care relating to gender transition qualifies as a medical deduction for federal income tax purposes; Doe v. Yunits, in which she represented a transgender student denied the right to attend school because of the clothing she wore; and Adams v. Bureau of Prisons, which successfully challenged a federal prison policy excluding medical care for transgender inmates who came into the system without a transition-related medical plan, among many others.

She has also worked on a number of high profile family law cases including the Miller-Jenkins case establishing full parental rights for a Vermont civil union spouse and cases in Connecticut and Massachusetts that established the right of same-sex couples to marry.

John Warrener opened one of the first transgender oriented web sites in 1996. It soon grew to include a brick and mortar store in Auburn, Massachusetts and eventually expanded to include a Glamour Boutique in Las Vegas and Studio City, CA. For decades, Glamour Boutique has been the go-to resource for transgender women requiring cross dressing advice, clothing and services, and especially those new to the community.

In 2007 he sold the GlamourBoutique.com web site and after a five year non compete opened a second online vendor in 2012, TGFashions.com. From shoes to wigs, Warrener has supplied generations of transwomen both locally and nationally, and has been responsible for developing many unique new product lines.

Now in its 35th year, First Event has grown into one of the largest transgender gatherings in the world and the only major winter conference. First Event 2015 happens January 21-25 at the Westin Waltham Boston hotel in Waltham, Massachusetts.

First Event is run by the Tiffany Club of New England (TCNE), one of the oldest transgender social and support organizations in the world. TCNE is a non-profit chapter 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1978 and registered with the state of Massachusetts.

For more information, visit www.FirstEvent.org or www.TCNE.org