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SoCo:
So Good!

by Tina Bourne

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 Jamie Wardperformances 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.

Atlanta Gay Male Voice ChoirOn 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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