This Talk is Illegal: Finding Community to Survive & Thrive as a Queer Trans Physicist

It’s not an easy time to be a trans person. It never has been. Prof. Elena Long knows this first hand, from coming out in rural Pennsylvania, to working as the only out trans nuclear physicist at a national lab as a grad student, and becoming the first out trans professor to achieve tenure at her university. This journey was made possible by finding and creating community along the way: from founding the lgbt+physicists organization, to developing the first study on the climate for LGBTQ+ people in physics, to joining the National Board of oSTEM to create the organization’s Trans Working Group and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, to co-founding the American Physical society’s Forum on Diversity and Inclusion; all done while simultaneously working to understand the nature of matter within atomic nuclei. In this talk, Prof. Long will share her experiences in finding her people, the importance of intersectionality in building resources, discuss the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people in STEM and beyond, and reflect on what it means to be in community with one another.