
SoCo: So Good!
by Tina Bourne
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Southern Comfort Convention - Atlanta GA. October 2 - 5
With this year's convention being lauded as 'the best yet', the big question
that both the organizers and attendees were asking was "How do you
improve on this?".
Balance is the Key
Gender conventions have to be a very finely mixed bag of serious content
and plain old good times. Southern Comfort seems to have this down to pretty
near perfect, with three full days of seminars, with some ground breaking
topics, plus social events both on and off site that left everyone - including
the City of Atlanta - breathless. And of course these two don't always mix.
There was a lot of fragile heads on Friday and Saturday mornings with the
seminars being better attended once the gift shop had dispensed the Tylenol
and Mineral Water. Rumor has it that it was not only the attendees who had
trouble getting up in the morning. One very well known figure in the community
was 45 minutes late for his own M2F seminar, but he wasn't alone. More than
a few of the more than 100 delegate who packed downtown Atlanta's Hard Rock
Cafe on Thursday night woke up with more than happy memories and sore dancing
feet the next morning.
This year also saw the first of a new feature of Southern Comfort - the
Transgender Town Hall Meeting. While most agreed that it was a little length,
the well attended meeting raised some of the most important issues for all
of us and the articulate audience were more than gratified by the discussions
from the panel and the floor. Next year should be even better.
Talent and Time
Modesty forbids me from extolling the virtues of all the assembled entertainers
who performed on Friday night, since I was among them. Suffice to say, that
the audience were thrilled by the depth of talent from the dozen or so girls
and boys who took the stage. For over an hour they kept the Ballroom at the
Holiday Inn Central thrilled with live
performances stemming from the
spine chilling voice of Stephanie Schumakers closing tour de force and our
friend Jami Ward with her new routine
springboarding from last year's "You Might Be Transgendered" to songs and
tears from all the cast.
On
Saturday night the Atlanta Gay Male Voice Choir were nothing short of
Stupendous!!! Taking the diners on a roller coaster of awe through tears,
laughter and back in their beautifully performed repertoire. Since the Southern
Comfort Conference is also the second largest source of support for the group
and their effort for HIV/AIDS we can be sure to see them again next year.
...Next Year ?
As the hard working group who put on this year's event met on Sunday morning
to start planning for Southern Comfort '98, the delegates were heading off
for all corners of the globe Attendees from as far afield as Hong Kong and
Dubai mixed with their American brothers, sisters, concerned professionals
and friends. Like the old adage goes - "Top That!!!" I, for
one, know that this year's indomitable chair Terry Murphy, and all the other
dedicated people who gave their time for us all, will have a real good try.
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