Rosalyne Blumenstein, LCSW CA-IP ACHP-SW is a social worker and therapist, and former Director of the Gender Identity Project at the New York LGBT Center. Rosalyne’s pioneering work helped spearhead the change from LG to LGBT. She is a member in good standing of WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender Health) and NASW (National Association of Social Workers). Rosalyne is printed in many academic books on trans-related issues, addiction, and recovery; quoted by the New York Times, New Yorker, the Blade, the Post, and LA Weekly; been seen on 2020, the View, and A&E; and is author of the memoir Branded T.

Co-founder of LGBTQ+ Iranian advocacy group Homan Los Angeles, Dr. Payam Ghassemlou is currently in private practice providing individual therapy. Dr. Payam has over twenty years of extensive training and research in the field of counseling and mental health. He taught at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he instructed first-year medical students on patient-centered interview, ethics and professionalism, empathy, cultural sensitivity, and developing communication skills. Dr. Payam has written and lectured on topics related to somatic psychotherapy, Eastern spirituality, mindfulness, diversity, climate justice, internalized homophobia, equal rights for LGBTQ+ persons, addictions, and embracing creativity.

Born and raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Paul Outlaw is a Los Angeles and Berlin-based multidisciplinary performing artist whose award-winning projects have been presented across the U.S. and Europe. In confronting the social constructions of race and gender, his work examines legacies of white supremacist, patriarchal violence—both physical and psychological—throughout Euro-American history. Paul has received a COLA (City of Los Angeles) Individual Artist Fellowship, multiple Lincoln City Fellowships and Ucross Foundation artist residencies, and grants from LA County Department of Arts and Culture, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Center for Cultural Innovation, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation, among others.