Juli Owens is a Bi-gendered biological male. She has been aware of her uniqueness since the age of 4 or 5, and has been crossdressing publicly for almost 30 years. Despite our society’s lack of understanding and acceptance, she has successfully balanced her life with a formal education that includes an engineering degree and an MBA, a 30-year career as a manufacturing manager, and as a husband and father.

Juli is extremely active in the Long Island LGBT community. She is a member of two Long Island Transgender support groups, the Long Island Trans Experience and the Long Island Femme Experience. Juli is a member of the Long Island Transgender Day of Remembrance Committee, and has been an active participant in the service for the past 3 years. She is also a Board Member of LIGALY, the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Center.

As a Transgender Rights activist, she is the Executive Director of LITAC, Long Island’s first transgendered advocacy group. In 2006, she addressed the Suffolk County Legislature on three separate occasions regarding changes to the county Human Rights Commission laws. She is a member of the New York State GENDA Coalition, where she serves as the Long Island Regional Director. She is Co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Democrats of Suffolk County. Juli is also a member of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). In March 2005, she attended her first Congressional Lobbying Day in Washington DC, where she met with Senators Clinton and Schumer’s staff.

Her outreach activities include speaking at a Transgender seminar at the 2005 & 2006 LIGALY Conference at Hofstra University. She has spoken at the Sunday service at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington and the Unitarian Universalist Society of South Suffolk to explain the life of a transgendered person to the two congregations. In 2005 she was interviewed on a radio show sponsored by the New York City Board of Education to give High School Students an awareness of Transgendered people. She is also a participant of the Transgender Project, a 3 year longitudinal study designed to describe the economic, social, and personal experiences of transwomen, how these experiences change over time and the impact that these changes and experiences have on the mental attitude and health functioning. And finally, her first amateur movie entitled Gender Getaway, was shown at the 2005 Long island Gay and Lesbian Film festival and Translations, The 2006 Seattle Transgender Film Festival.