HiTOPS

Sex Education & Support For All Youth

Special Guests

YouTube

Hennessy Winkler

he/him/his

Hennessy’s recent credits include Sweeney Todd on Broadway, where he became the second out trans man ever to perform on a Broadway stage. He also starred as Will Parker in the Broadway national tour of Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! and was featured in Concert 4 America. He workshopped a new musical with and by Jason Robert Brown. He will also appear in an upcoming play at La Jolla Playhouse that features a trans male character.

In addition to his work on stage, Hennessy was featured in the film No Ordinary Man. He will also play a leading role in the new musical Far From Canterbury at the historic Barnstormers Theater.

Hennessy has earned several accolades throughout his career. He won the Audience Choice Award at the Looking Glass Theater and Best Actor Overall at the NY Fringe Festival. He was also nominated for Best Actor at the Icelandic Academy (EDDA) Awards.

He received early training from the legendary Sue Ann Loudon and later graduated from Marymount Manhattan College.

YouTube

Lia Thomas

she/her/hers

Lia Thomas (she/her) is a transgender woman, an athlete, and an advocate. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 where she competed as an openly transgender swimmer and became the first trans athlete to win an NCAA D1 Championship. She received significant media attention for her competition on the women’s team and has spoken about her experiences and of the importance of inclusion in athletics. In addition to her NCAA awards, she has been named one of the 100 most Influential Philadelphians in 2022 and The Trustee’s Council of Penn Women’s 2022 Athletic Achievement Award.

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Fran Tirado

she/they

Fran is the exec editor at them.us as well as the creator of Doll Invasion and the organizer of the largest trans protest in history. She has spoken at institutions like Yale, Juilliard, Harvard, Northwestern, and NYU, among others. Fran is the winner of the Stonewall Vision Award, Brooklyn’s 30 Under 30, and MTV’s Logo Legends Honor. Fran’s work has been featured in Vogue, USA Today, People, TIME, NBC, BBC, PBS, NPR, New York, Interview, Elle, The Cut, GQ, The Rachel Maddow Show, Good Morning America, Adweek, AdAge, AV Club, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among others.
Instagram

Chris E. Vargas

he/him/his

Chris E. Vargas is a video maker and transdisciplinary artist. He earned his MFA from the Art Practice department at Berkeley in 2011. His work uses humor and performance to explore the complex ways that queer and trans people negotiate spaces for themselves within historical and institutional memory. He is the Executive Director of MOTHA, the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art, a critical and conceptual arts & hirstory institution highlighting the contributions of trans art to the cultural and political landscape. In 2016 he received a Creative Capital award in the Emerging Field category, in 2020, he was a John C. Guggenheim fellow, and he is a 2024/25 Latinx Art Fellow.