HiTOPS

Sex Education & Support For All Youth

Special Guests

YouTube

Hennessy Winkler

he/him/his

Recent credits include Sweeney Todd on Broadway where he was the 2nd out trans man ever on a Broadway stage; Broadway national tour of Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! starring as Will Parker; featured in the recent Concert 4 America; Workshopped a new musical with/by Jason Robert Brown; Upcoming play featuring a trans male character at LaJolla Playhouse; Featured in the film No Ordinary Man & leading a role in the new musical Far From Canterbury at the historic Barnstormers theater. Winner of several awards including: ‘Audience Choice Award’ at the Looking Glass theater; ‘Best Actor Overall’ at the NYfringe festival; & a nomination of ‘Best Actor’ at the Icelandic Academy (EDDA) Awards. Trained early by the legendary Sue Ann Loudon & a graduate of 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.

Instagram

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.