The Femme Conference is a bi-annual project by the Conference Steering Committee of the Femme Collective.

The Femme Collective is committed to creating conferences by Femmes, about Femmes, and for Femmes and their allies. We understand that Femme is more complex than just being a queer person who is feminine; it is a part of how we interact with and shape our world as queer academics, activists, artists, homemakers, parents, professionals, students, teachers, etc.

Our conferences seek to explore, discuss, dissect, and support Queer Femme* as a transgressive, gender-queer, stand-alone, and empowered identity and provide a space for organizing and activism within Queer communities. We hope to attract people of all genders who are interested in a deeper understanding of Femme identity, culture, and history as well as Femmes interested in learning, teaching, connecting, and building community geared towards social change. Recognizing that queer Femme gender can be constructed independent of and/or intimately connected to biological sex, this conference will build coalition among queer Femmes of every stripe. Taking into consideration the various ways in which Femmes across the country and the world construct Femme based on region, class, race, ethnicity, access and ability, the Femme Collective will strive to create a safe place for open dialogue among a plethora of Femme-identified persons and their allies.

We are dedicated to: creating a Femme-positive environment; selecting programming to honor differences in ethnicities, physical abilities and gender expressions; and highlighting the intersection of queer Femme identity with issues of race, class, age, and body. We hope that together we can create a space to explore many of the complexities of Femme identity, including (but not limited to) questions of privilege, invisibility, intersecting identities, class mobility, aging, and the differences between femininity and Femme identity. We hope to contribute to giving voice to queer Femme identity, and to building unity, coalition, and solidarity in and among genderqueer communities.

*We recognize that for many lesbians and same-gender-loving Femmes ‘queer’ is not a term that works and that it can often feel alienating and unwelcoming. We want to recognize that language is always imperfect, and make it clear that we use the term as an umbrella to include all of us who identify as Femme within LGBTQIA/SGL and genderphile communities. We are using this term to specifically and intentionally include lesbians and same-gender-loving women as well as genderqueers, trans women, and folks of every sex and gender who identify as Femme and see themselves as part of LGBTQIA/SGL and genderphile communities.