Name: Tanner Efinger
Age: 26
Hometown: West Hollywood, CA
Occupation: Supervisor of Communications and Social Media, MZA Events
Why I Found Him at Creating Change:

Tanner explains that he “accidentally” fell into activism after the passage of Proposition 8, though that might be a humble interpretation of his efforts since. Before then, being gay had been easy. He came from a liberal family with open, loving parents and never had personally suffered much in the way of homophobia. He explained to me that “everything changed” when Prop 8 passed. It was an eye-opener for him and he saw the need to stand up and not be afraid. After the rallies and protests subsided, he wondered what he could then do?

Tanner started Postcards to the President, encouraging folks all over the country to send postcards to President Obama demanding the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. The project exploded, and over 15,000 postcards have been sent with more on the way.

Through the project, he met many more local activists with a similar desire to help and keep the conversation about these issues going. Soon he met Rick Jacobs, Cleve Jones, and was assuming leadership positions with the National Equality March (now Equality Across America). Tanner is passionate about the sustainability of the grassroots movement. When he asks himself, “What can I do?” he now knows the answer is, as Gandhi said, to be the change.

Through his work and leadership, Tanner has been a part of organizing AIDS Walks, the recent Rock for Equality, and the Harvey Milk Day of Action. He is motivated by this simple maxim:

We deserve better… and we can do better!

What He’d Change in America:

The one thing Tanner would change is the struggle of class oppression that stems from greed. He hopes his efforts help humanity minimize greed, because he sees a connection from all issues back to class.

Though the Rock for Equality already took place, here is its “What Kind of Planet Are We On?” video that won a YouTube Do-Gooder award for Innovation in a video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoNiZhAUWcg

Guest star Marvin Bloom joins Zack and Peterson this week for a conversation about religion. As a gay Jew-for-Jesus from Long Island (who makes Sarah Palin look like a mainline Presbyterian), Marvin has many questions for Zack about his atheism, and you get to listen in to the hilarity that ensues! At one point, someone IMs Zack, which is exactly what you should do if you have your own questions about atheism or ideas for the podcast! This “Atheism 101″ podcast explores intersections between religion and sexuality, but by no means offers definitive answers to any of life’s questions. We invite you to join the conversation by commenting on the posts or engaging in discussion on the Facebook page!

Here’s some more information about what we talked about this week:

» Read Zack’s recent post about coming out as an atheist.

» Learn more about Russell’s Teapot.

» Check out the Transponder podcast, featuring Moments with Marvin.

» Marvin Bloom’s YouTube Channel.

Name: Jan Griesinger
Age: 67
Hometown: Athens, OH
Occupation: Co-Director of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC)
Why I Found Her at Creating Change:

Jan is proud to be old. She might fit AARP’s definition of an “elder” or “senior citizen,” but she is old and don’t try to call her anything else! More on that below.

Creating Change is important for Jan because it’s really the only national organizing conference for activists. And Jan is quite an activist. She’s currently Co-Director of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, an organization of lesbians over the age of 60 committed to confronting ageism and sharing their “great deal of wisdom, experience, and strength” with the world.

While OLOC might not be as well known as SAGE, it has a 21-year herstory with 14 chapters across the U.S. And why old? They’ll happily tell you:

We refute the lie that it is shameful to be an “Old” woman. We name ourselves “Old Lesbians” because we will no longer accommodate ourselves to language that implies in any way that “Old” means inferior.

We call ourselves OLD with pride. In doing so, we challenge the stereotypes directly. Thus, we empower and change ourselves, each other, and the world.

At a workshop presented by SAGE about the new Movement Advancement Project study on LGBT Elders, an interesting discussion broke out because some members of OLOC in the workshop challenged their language.

Jan is insistent that people need to understand ageism. She’s quite excited about the upcoming OLOC National Gathering, entitled “Old Lesbian Pride: Sharpening the Radical Edge.” She doesn’t like talking about “equality.” Radical change is about liberty, she told me. Liberation movements bring new values to justice.

During the short time I had to speak with Jan, I got really fired up by her energy. I wish more young people had the same passion she had for moving this country forward.

What She’d Change in America:

The best government money can buy. “That’s why Granny D marched!”

Bonus! Creating Change Conference Director Sue Hyde joined us for the photo!

Name: Warren Scherer
Age: 28
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Occupation: Program Coordinator, LGBT Resource Center, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Why I Found Him at Creating Change:

Warren is one of my many fabulous colleagues in the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. Like the work Terry, Lisa, and Vanessa do with community LGBT centers, professionals connected with the Consortium are LGBT advocates who provide social and educational support for the community, but are employed by colleges and universities. The number of LGBT positions on campuses has grown incredibly over the past decade and the Consortium is growing along with it and becoming a stronger voice in the greater LGBT movement and Higher Education community. A great recent example was the Consortium’s recent response to the Virginia Attorney General regarding university nondiscrimination policies.

Creating Change is an exciting opportunity for the Consortium to come together at our annual conference. Warren told me that he was eager to pick up new ideas and initiatives to take back to Wisconsin with him. He loves that his work focuses on LGBT issues because he himself identifies as a member of the queer community. He was raised to believe that everyone is equal, so it bothers him when people do not actually have equality.

Consider the scope of the kind of work he and his colleague Jennifer Murray due at UW Milwaukee. There are eager outspoken students there (not unlike Urvi), but there are also students just beginning to think about coming out. They have the challenge of creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive for all members. The Consortium and Creating Change are exciting ways to find ways to reach them all and truly serve the development of the LGBT community.

What He’d Change in America:

Warren has serious concerns about suburban sprawl and the impact on how we use resources. The sprawl leads to a loss of natural resources and an increase in waste production. This, Warren points out, also takes tax dollars away from public transportation and education.

Name: Urvashi “Urvi” Nagrani
Age: 22
Hometown: Los Altos, CA
Occupation: Film & Media Student , University of California, Santa Barbara
Why I Found Her at Creating Change:

Urvi is the quintessential student activist. At UCSB, she serves as the External Coordinator for the university’s Associated Student Queer Commission. As a funded officer, it’s her job to connect UCSB to state and national campaigns for LGBT equality and bring activism knowledge and opportunities to campus. She also serves as the Political Chair of the Queer Student Union. She told me that students want to see “more than bickering between organizations”—that they are working toward real social change and safety for all. Click here to read more about the Queer Bomb campaign.

Groups like those Urvi works with can be found on university campuses across the country. Students are working to educate themselves, their fellow students, and their families and communities about LGBT issues and working to engage them. At present, these college student groups are mostly disassociated. Some regional conferences (like the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) as well as the UC LGBTI Association) allow groups to connect regularly, but the student groups themselves still work mostly independently. Though this network of activists remains largely untapped on the national scale, these student groups are responsible for some of the most important education and activism in the queer equality movement.

After being a strong ally of the queer community for seven years, Urvi had her own coming out experience. She had long seen that there was a safety net that was not extended to friends or parents, and she knows her friends could be attacked just for being who they are. She continues doing the work she does because it is essential for the community’s protection to be safe from harm. “Safety for all includes LGBT.”

What She’d Change in America:

Urvi would like to make sustainability part of everyone’s vision for change. To honor a true vision within morality and ethics, she told me, we would need to live in cleaner, safe communities where everyone could be happy. This requires a mental paradigm shift to lasting support.

Name: Vanessa Torres
Age: 29
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Occupation: Admissions Representative, Aviation Institute of Maintenance
Why I Found Her at Creating Change:

Vanessa didn’t travel far to get to Creating Change, but she made up for it by working hard. Vanessa is one of many volunteers for the Dallas LGBT Center who gathered to help with the logistics of Creating Change. She, like her colleagues, was glad to be a part of something big that she could give back to.

For more than 20 years, Resource Center Dallas has been serving the needs of the LGBT Community. From RCD’s website:

More than 1,100 volunteers and a paid staff of 46 make the Resource Center Dallas one of the largest centers of its kind in the United States. More than 50,000 people each year use the Center through its programs and services. From its roots as an advocacy group for civil rights regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, the Center continues its dual mission: to develop programs and offer services for the GLBT community, as well as individuals and families affected by HIV and AIDS.

Vanessa explains that she supports queer equality because she thinks everybody should have the same opportunities she had with her experience as “straight” (in the closet). She wants to work so that future queers have the same experience at 13 she only had passing as straight. She and her colleagues (pictured left) brought a ton of energy to the conference and surely contributed to making the kind of difference she hopes to make.

What She’d Change in America:

Vanessa thinks everyone should have the right and access to healthcare. She points out that some don’t have family support or the necessary financial security to get the same kind of healthcare that others take for granted. On a global scale, this is important because it would help contain diseases.

I hope for Vanessa’s sake and everyone else’s that our government succeeds in passing reform so this becomes more of a reality.

Name: Terry Stone
Age: 59
Hometown: Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Occupation: Executive Director, CenterLink
Why I Found Him at Creating Change:

Terry came to Creating Change because it is an opportunity to network with community centers and be a part of a great conference to discuss equality and learn from each other!

Why are community centers important to Terry? Because he serves as Executive Director of CenterLink, which connects the over 168 LGBT Community Centers found throughout 45 of the United States. Half of these centers half budgets under $50,000 with no full-time staff, but many are still the only LGBT presence in many of their regions. Community centers, like Cortland, NY’s run by Lisa Tibbles, connect folks to resources, organize for change, provide support for coming out, provide direct healthcare (40% of centers), and also work to serve the needs of LGBT youth, elders, and people of color.

CenterLink serves two important purposes. First, it helps the centers connect with each other, share ideas and resources, and collaborate regionally. Second, it helps advocate for all community centers nationally. This is essential to the queer equality movement because sometimes a community center is the only visible recruitment center and educational resource for potential activists.

Terry Stone has worked in the movement for over 20 years. He knows that we will see a day when there is no question that we’re all equal. A primary concern for him right now is finding ways for aging couples to access benefits like social security.

What He’d Change in America:

Terry thinks we need to change the focus away from looking at differences and looking at the bigger picture of all the similarities we have. This is true not just with LGBT issues, but in general with all matters of identity like race and gender.

We should always be asking ourselves: “How do our actions influence each other?”

The woman who offered to take our picture was apparently a professional photographer. I think she made us look great!

Name: Lisa Tibbles
Age: 39
Hometown: Cortland, NY
Occupation: Program Coordinator, Cortland LGBT Resource Center
Why I Found Her at Creating Change:

I have to say, as a personal note, that it was pretty awesome that I found Lisa at Creating Change. It was totally a random approach on my part, but it turns out Lisa is a fellow Ithaca College alum (Go Bombers!), so we related very easily! Much of what we discussed was sort of outside the context of my Faces For Equality interview, so I’m intentionally leaving out some of the detail out of respect for that.

Lisa is relatively new to her position as project coordinator at the Cortland LGBT Resource Center in Cortland, NY. For 15 years, she taught physical education in a public school and generally was very unhappy. She had to hide her identity as a lesbian and knew that she was experiencing discrimination and prejudice in her work from individuals who suspected. She found it stifling and knew she could not spend her life in that environment. She just couldn’t stand for that kind of inequality:

I’m a lesbian. My rights are just as important as everyone else’s.

The Cortland LGBT Resource Center is one of many community resource centers across the country. It provides services such as resource referrals to LGBT safe and sensitive services, educational trainings, youth and family support services, support groups, advocacy and legal referrals, collaborations with businesses to create LGBT friendly services, and LGBT community event planning. In places where there is little, if any, visibility and support for LGBT folks (like Cortland, as an example), community centers play a vital role in creating a space for the individuals who live in and near that community. Centers help LGBT citizens feel like they can actually be participants in the community without hiding their identities.

New to the job, Lisa sought the counsel of the LGBT support staff at Ithaca College and Syracuse University (my colleagues Lis Maurer and Adrea Jaehnig!), who both told her she should come to Creating Change for new knowledge. Lisa said she was at the conference to be “a sponge for everything.”

What She’d Change in America:

World peace. There’d be compassion for everyone.

Lisa went on to say that she thinks it important we try to be nonjudgmental.

Life is just one big classroom. We can all be teachers for each other.

Ithaca, Forever, Shine your light on me…

The Friday plenary also included The Calling of the Names, a “lifting up” of those we have lost over the past year. This was probably a fitting end to the morning for those who spent it at the National Religious Leadership Roundtable Meeting. Before the conference was over, there were more than fifteen workshops and academy sessions addressing issues of faith and spirituality. Here is a sampling:

» Adult Faith-Based Organizing for Change in the Church: Building Relationships
» transACTION – A Transgender Curriculum for Churches and Religious Organizations
» “Would Jesus Discriminate?” Shifting the Discourse on Faith-Based Prejudice
» Homophobia in the Black Church
» Mobilizing Catholic Support for LGBTQ Equality
» Spiritual Self-Defense
» Faith and LGBTI Equality: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk

And of course, the weekend couldn’t have ended without the Sunday-morning interfaith gathering, “Engaging the Spirit.”

Not one event—not even a simple caucus—at Creating Change 2010 mentioned or proactively included atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, brights, antitheists, or nonbelievers.

Contextually, This Makes Some Sense

Long ago, when religious organizations started revving up their epic quest to demonize sexual minorities, they played to the dualistic gullibility of their congregants. If being gay is unChristian, you can’t be gay and Christian. This was conveniently facilitated by the excommunication and expulsion of LGBT folks from these groups. See? They’re not here! What has helped maintain the stigma against the queer community is the popular belief that all queer folks are amoral and against the Church. You still see this in the constant self-victimization of anti-gay religious groups and leaders.

So, honestly, I think it makes perfect sense for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to be proactive in helping the LGBT community reclaim their faith. Religious organizations continue to be a powerful social force in our nation, and as far as the queer equality movement is concerned, it makes a lot of sense to work towards change from within. Advocates can do their best work when they’re empowered, and I’m sure there are many who feel very empowered by the validation their faith receives at Creating Change and the opportunities they have to engage with others who are faithful.

Atheists Thrown Under The Bus

First, let’s be clear: there are atheists at Creating Change. There are probably a lot of them, actually. I certainly met a few. (And I must again comment here that the atheist community is one of the most supportive allies to the queer equality movement I know.) There are also numerous other religious minorities present that go similarly unrepresented. Speaking for myself alone, I am not a fan of the religious celebrations that take place during the plenary sessions. I think it’s wonderful that we celebrate the cultures of the First Nations Collective, but must the conference open with a prayer? I think it’s important that we remember those we’ve lost and provide strength for each other, but must we do it in such a religious fashion?

For me, these events remind me that I am still subjected to incredible religious privilege. Despite all the efforts of the conference to be inclusive and accessible, these events continue to exclude those like myself who do not subscribe to them. The message I receive is, “This is a religious conference; we are all participating in and supporting religious practice.” That isn’t the intent of the conference, and I know that, but it is a message that very much leaves me feeling ostracized and helps keep atheism in the closet. Here’s what’s really happening:

Rather than resist the religious privilege that was responsible for their persecution, the LGBT community decided to try to access it instead. The consequence is that atheists are “thrown under the bus.”

Nonbelievers continue to suffer the same kind of ostracization as we always have. In fact, the queer community has garnered much more popular favor in our nation than atheists. We continue to be the most distrusted and despised minority in the United States. But the leading torch and pitchfork-holders are the same conservative religious organizations that continue to try to demonize the queer community! It seems the LGBT movement would rather work with the pitchfork-holders than try to deprive them of pitchforks.

Must The Overlap Be Invisible?

I started this blog recognizing that the cultural forces that oppress me as a gay man and an atheist are almost entirely the same. I write about issues relating to both because the overlap is undeniable. Working to dismantle religious privilege and diminish the power that religious organizations have over society benefits both communities. I am an out-and-proud gaytheist because overcoming oppression depends upon my visibility and outspokenness.

It is disappointing that these overlaps are not represented at Creating Change, despite the conference’s concerted efforts toward inclusion. The very thesis of Thomas Saenz’s speech at the opening plenary was recognizing the overlap between the LGBT community and the immigrant community! Why must atheists continue to be marginalized by the queer movement? Is the movement so afraid of religion that they are afraid to ally with the growing nonbeliever community lest they be hit with some of the same stones?

Today I offer this challenge to The Task Force to take a more proactive approach to including nonbelievers at Creating Change and in their other work. Spirituality should not be hegemonically enforced upon the conference participants through plenary sessions. Language should be more inclusive to welcome those who are not just interfaith, but those who are without faith. Workshops and caucuses should be available to create safe spaces for nonbelievers and to provide opportunities to connect and organize.

I commit myself to working towards these changes for Creating Change 2011. Can we create change at Creating Change?

Name: Charlotte Park
Age: 24
Hometown: Boston, MA
Occupation: Engineering Student, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Why I Found Her at Creating Change:

I caught Charlotte just moments after she had finished participating in the queer youth of color panel at the Saturday plenary session at Creating Change. She had been specifically invited to the conference to participate in that panel, and had rearranged her schedule last-minute to be there. (I can only imagine what it’s like for an engineering student to rearrange her schedule last-minute.)

Charlotte was representing BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, an organization committed to providing weekly and monthly social activities for people ages 22 and under that has been in existence over 25 years. They also offer HIV, STI, drugs, and alcohol education and prevention programs to help ensure young queer folks can make responsible decisions about their health and get the support they need. BAGLY has also recently started offering leadership development to help foster new generations of queer activists and leaders.

Charlotte got involved with BAGLY because she thought it was important to make time for the community. Even though she doesn’t agree with the entire social movement, she could support youth from BAGLY to network and engage. She hopes to continue doing advocacy work and perhaps do more to support women and queer folks in the sciences, recognizing that both populations are still underrepresented in the research fields.

What She’d Change in America:

Charlotte sees a vital need for a stronger infrastructure supporting disenfranchised youth, including those who are homeless, in foster care, and victims of abuse. If there were less bureaucracy, there would be more money available to support their severely underserved needs.

As Creating Change is a conference for many seasoned activists, the folks I met truly showcase the organizations they represent. I asked them the same simple questions that are the foundation of the project, but in their profiles I will also try to feature some of the work that their organizations do. While the National Equality March collection was about capturing a snapshot of the lives of people affected by inequality, these nine profiles offer a sampling of the kind of work being done across the nation to support the queer community.

I will put the profiles up one at a time over the rest of the month of February. I hope the project continues to illuminate the vast diversity within the queer community and the very hard, but important, work ahead of us to achieve full equality in society.

(I also just want to share that NCLR’s Kate Kendall also interviewed a number of folks at the conference. You should check those out here.)

The main thrust (pun intended, as you’ll see) of the workshop was the way sexuality is so fluid and that the notion that we’re all just gay or straight (or even gay, straight, or bi) is a complete myth. Despite being bright and early Saturday morning, there were a ton of energetic young people there, and it was really great to see them having these conversations about how sexuality changes over time. In particular, it was striking to see the way so many aim for ambiguity, recognizing what they like but not necessarily conforming their identity to match.

I should point out that this phenomenon was evident throughout the conference. More and more people are really moving towards identifying as “queer,” as if to say I’m queer and that’s all you need to know. I kind of wish I’d gone to some of the sexual liberation workshops so I could know more!

At any rate, in Robyn’s workshop we did an anonymous survey of how people define their identities, attractions, and behavior over time. After looking at identities and attractions through different lenses, we then juxtaposed those identities with actual behaviors. The results were interesting, because they didn’t always match. Some people reported engaging in sexual behavior that did not reflect their same- or opposite-sex attractions. And in some cases, there was no reported sexual behavior.

It was at this point that Robyn made the poignant point that is the title of this post:

True or false? Society makes you feel guilty for having sex. TRUE.
True or false? Society makes you feel guilty for not having sex. TRUE.

It really is true. All sexual behavior is judged. You either get chided for going for it or for not going for it. There isn’t really a “win-win.”

I don’t know if there’s any more to say about this point than just that, but I still find it amazingly compelling. Just being aware of this point I think lets us think much more openly about sex.

So many of our choices and our “standards” are influenced by the world around us. Just about every single religion has had something to say about the morality of sex, most likely because we’re all sexual beings and it’s a deeply influential method of control. When you really step back and think about it, there really can be no moral question for safe, consensual sex. Yet, we tend to be profoundly self-conscious about our sexual behavior and reputation.

There are some considerations that are important beyond consent. Obviously, sexual contact always include health risks. Trust is also fundamentally important to maintaining the consent and safety of the interaction. And if you value monogamy like I do, it’s important to honor commitments and sexual exclusivity. Lastly, we can’t ignore that for many people, sexual behavior always has an emotional component. Aspects of commitment, dependency, love, and power can affect people well beyond the physical sexual pleasure they experience.

But, if you can account for all of those factors (and I’d personally recommend that you do), is there any good reason to be inhibited as sexual beings? I would say no. This is why I was torn when I was writing that monogamy post a few weeks ago, because even though I value monogamy both sexually and emotionally, I completely understand how and why open couples make their openness work.

Sex is a great thing. I think everyone deserves the opportunity to be sexual beings. I think everyone has the right to explore their sexuality in any way they wish (that honors the values I just discussed). Hell, if we all liked the same things, life would be pretty damn boring! I’ll admit here that I have at least one fetish and that I’m also kink-curious, and honestly, I feel like it takes some courage to put that out there publicly. But really, why should it? Why should I feel embarrassed to say so? Sure, there are probably some of you out there who don’t want to think about Zack Ford as a sexual being, but get over it. You’re a sexual being too, you know.

I think life would be a lot less stressful if society didn’t make us feel so self-conscious about sex. I do think discretion is important, and sexual harassment is a very real and serious concern in our culture. But I don’t think it has to be either-or. I think we can get to a place where we don’t have to be afraid/guilty/ashamed of our sex lives without constantly making overt sexual advancements to every single person we meet. Just as “gay” does not solely define me, I can come out of the closet as “sexual” without letting sexuality control my life.

Why should sex be judged? The young people in Robyn’s session made it very clear that the last thing they want is to be boxed in. Not only do they not want their identities bound by binaries, so too do they want the opportunity to explore their sexuality beyond the “shoulds” and “should nots” that society overwhelms us with.

I feel bad for the people who have been conditioned to be ashamed of sex, one way or another. We only get one chance to explore this thing called humanity, and there seems to be no reason to make the most of it. Thanks, Robyn, and others, for helping me better understand this in my life.

Radical queers are going to fuck shit up!

- Juan Gabriel Padilla

On Saturday, the main feature of the Creating Change plenary session was a panel of queer youth of color. The discussion dealt with the challenges that youth organizing faces, highlighted by a recent report from FIERCE (Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment), which you can read below. The report, Coming Out, Stepping Up (embedded below), illuminates many challenges facing youth advocacy, including increased homelessness, insufficient and decreased resources, increased rates of HIV/AIDS and STIs, and strategies that are not effectively utilizing youth leadership.

The general theme that the young folks spoke to was the difference between laws and conditions. This distinction should resonate throughout the entire movement, but often doesn’t. There will be a day when the laws change, and those issues will no longer be of primary concern. There are certain conditions, however, that will persist, and in the interim, they are being totally ignored.

In general, 25-40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ. Some cities might report even higher rates. As social services—like access to health care, clothing, food, and housing—are cut, the situation only worsens for these young people and the centers trying to support them. Add in transphobia and gender-based violence, police harassment and violence, school safety, HIV/AIDS awareness, and personal wellness and mental health, and you see a whole lot of challenge that is often completely unsupported by “the movement.”

What’s worse is that advocacy organizations often take advantage of young people without reciprocating support. There are a lot of opportunities for leadership development available for our queer youth, but after the youth show up for the marriage equality rally, they never hear from the big organizations anymore. More importantly, young people are rarely included as decision makers or organizers. As one of the panelists pointed out (paraphrased):

Adults have to be open to the changes of the next generation. Youth should be empowered and trusted, not just ordered.

Also missing from our movement are organizations that work to support both youth and adults. There are only 101 youth organizing centers across our country attempting to shoulder the entire burden of supporting queer youth, with many states having no such resources whatsoever. There are no organizations that serve the whole community and are inclusive of the unique and vital needs of queer youth.

I was very impressed with the panel that spoke during the plenary. These are amazingly confident and poised leaders who are committed to righting the wrongs of the world. They know the struggle of their peers and will stop at nothing to try to improve the circumstances for queer youth.

Gabriel Padilla was particularly passionate, lighting a fire under the conference’s collective ass by saying that change is going to come because…

Radical queers are going to fuck shit up!

Ash Hammond echoed that energy, solemnly stating:

When I’m sitting in the audience at Creating Change 2020 listening to a panel of youth, I hope they aren’t talking about any of the things I’m talking about today.

Truly, we have to recognize that achieving queer equality means much more than just passing ENDA or overturning DOMA and DADT. If our society cares so much about children (as our opponents often remind us), we owe it to them to prioritize their needs and their struggle.

Read the FIERCE report below and find out what you can do to better support queer youth in our nation:

FIERCE – Coming Out, Stepping Up (2010)

On the shuttle to the airport, I was sitting next to an active servicemember. He was wearing that really ugly pixelated camouflage uniform they all wear when they travel. I think that alone would be reason for me not to join the military, but I don’t want to fulfill stereotypes about gay men, because I’m really not all that fashion-conscious. There are just two important things you need to know:

1) He was in uniform. 2) He was wearing a wedding band.

I don’t know the guy’s name, or what he does, or really anything about him except for two points: he’s in the military, and he’s married.

There is always the chance that he has a same-sex partner. In fact, after spending the week at Creating Change, I’m actually still a bit conditioned to assume that everyone I meet is a member of the queer community. But given the culture of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, it’s almost impossible that he’s in a same-sex marriage, because he would be constantly asked about his wife. He’d thus constantly have to lie.

I wanted to ask him about his wife. I wanted to ask him about the female troops he works with. Do they feel harassed knowing that he’s heterosexual? Are people concerned he might assault them? Does the fact that he has an ever-present symbol of his sexuality in clear view affect his unit’s cohesion?

As Sue Fulton of Knights Out told us at Creating Change, the policy is not enforced as it is described. It is simply “Don’t Tell.” As soon as an accusation is put forth, an investigation ensues, and then a whole lot of asking takes place, and as we know, a whole lot of discharges.

But the simple, recognizable symbol of a wedding band might be the key to pointing out to people that DADT has got to go. For all the stories we can relate about the consequences for gay and lesbian troops, perhaps this wedding band is the symbol that will help people see how simple and profound the discrimination is.

Later this week I’m going to do a post highlighting the photography of Jeff Sheng, and I think this context will be important to note. Despite the fact that many servicemembers have significant others in their life, they have to constantly hide their private lives. There are a lot of ringless fingers in his photographs.

I think there is an incredibly common narrative of “horrible travel.” Anyone who experiences delays and cancellations and whatnot can easily relate the story with drama and flair, as if it was the “worst thing” that could ever happen to you. I want to make it clear that my intention in writing about my travel adventures today is not to evoke pity or rouse tempers. I just think it’s all kind of interesting. This post is just about my weird travel experiences, and hopefully you’ll find my stories and analysis as interesting as I do.

First, I have to say that I think it’s really unfortunate that I’m stuck in DC, while many of my colleagues who call DC home are stuck in Dallas. It’s just bizarre that I had a flight through DC that wasn’t canceled—and not only did it get here, but it had empty seats on it—but my friends and colleagues who would have been satisfied to get no further than DC didn’t make it here. There’s nothing to be said about why it happened, but it seems worth noting. I certainly can’t complain that I only got to DC when some folks might not get out of Dallas until Tuesday.

A colleague of mine had the same DC connection to his home destination. We both had seen that it was still on-schedule despite knowing many of our fellow Creating Change participants had had their DC flights canceled. We decided to go to the airport early in hopes of seeing if there were alternate connections that could still get us to our home destinations. When we got there, we were both told that even our connecting flights were still good to go, and more importantly, we weren’t really given the choice to rebook. If it’s going, it’s going, and that’s just how the airline works.

I could be really pissed about this. After all, our intuitions turned out to be correct, as we would learn upon landing at Dulles that both our connecting flights were canceled. When the airline knows that a ton of DC flights have been canceled, why wouldn’t they air on the side of caution? Maybe they want to keep our business, but also, why wouldn’t they? It’s easy to complain that in the “Age of Information” we should be able to know for sure the status of flights. Surely, though, if we didn’t trust air-traffic controllers to make that call, air travel would be more frustrating and complicated than it currently is.

The pilot informed us that we would be one of the first flights to land at Dulles and that they only had one runway open. At first, I kind of felt special. We were the lucky flight that got to land. But runways are necessary for both landings and take-offs, so it didn’t bode well for the amount of flights that were probably still going in and out of Dulles.

I wondered if the fact that there were at least three military personnel on our flight contributed to its privilege to land in DC. I’ll never know the answer, but I think it’s a worthwhile hypothesis. (I saw another servicemember in the hotel tonight, and he said he’s bound for Iraq for his 7th tour of duty, so I wonder if multiple new deployments are taking place.)

Truly, the quality of the tarmac at Dulles was of concern. Our runway landing was fine, but our taxiing was quite rough. The tarmac was clearly coated with padded snow and ice and it was the most unusual taxi I ever experienced.

It didn’t take long to get a standby flight for tomorrow morning, but I had to wait in a very long and slow line to make sure my bag was retrieved and to get a voucher for a hotel discount. The folks in the line were not happy. Many were by themselves and so didn’t have a companion with whom to socialize (myself included, as my colleague’s situation was not as optimistic and he is now pursuing other means of transportation). Tempers were high.

The situation is what the situation is. Some folks were upset and looking for answers and explanations. Others had accepted the fact they weren’t leaving DC tonight but were frustrated they had to wait so long to get answers about what they’d be doing next. Having gotten some good (and much needed) sleep on the flight from Dallas, I was moderately chipper and was hoping I could make my own relaxed state contagious. I quietly hummed “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life,” secretly hoping they’d catch on and the whole customer service queue would break out in song. It didn’t happen, but I think people were somewhat calmed by my smile and relaxed swaying.

One man was not happy. He was from Montreal and was furious that something like weather would be an excuse for the airline not to pay for his lodgings, let alone keep his flight from taking off. After making it clear that this would never happen at the Montreal airport, he totally berated the poor agent and his overseeing manager as well. The manager calmly answered that the problem was the weather. He acknowledged that the man was right and admitted that Dulles is not prepared (or more importantly, equipped) to respond to three feet of snow efficiently. That didn’t change the fact that the underlying problem was the weather. The man was sort of committed to being pissed, but the manager’s calm (and slightly snarky) response was impressive and did help pacify the man at least slightly.

To give you an idea of how complicated the weather makes things for the airport I took a picture of the scene from the baggage claim, I took a picture with my phone. There were literally bags everywhere. I can only imagine what causes this. Some people probably abandon their bags by choosing alternate forms of transportation. Some people might end up flying without their bags. Some bags might have ended up flying without their owners. As an outside observer, it’s difficult to grasp exactly what happened. Still, it was a sight to see. The picture I took does not do it justice. And keep in mind, I took this picture at 10:30 PM. Downstairs there was a line at least 100 people long to get taxis to DC locations, especially since some of those folks might not be going anywhere until Tuesday, at the earliest. This isn’t an ideal situation for anyone, but there were some airport staff working incredibly hard (and enduring a lot of duress) to try to accommodate folks, and I commend them for that.

The hotel clearly does the same. My room here at the Hilton is nicer than the one I had in Dallas the past four nights and I’m paying half the price for it. They also had the free airport shuttle running regularly, and served hot dinner until midnight. I’m sure their staff is tight given lots of people are still stuck and it’s hard to get around, but they have done much to ease the frayed nerves of stressed travelers.

On the shuttle to the hotel, I again tried to maintain some positive attitude. I offered to my eight co-passengers, “This is fun, isn’t it?” I felt particularly bad for a mother who was traveling with her son. Probably about eight years old, her son was desperately tired, and when we were in line to check-in he even started to cry—not a whiny cry but a sincere cry of exhaustion and confusion. I can only imagine the stress of dealing with delays and hotels compounded by a young child who just isn’t equipped to deal with those circumstances.

I made a lovely connection as a result of my cheerful conversation on the shuttle. I met a marketing executive of sorts from northern California who was on her way home after sailing around the Virgin Islands for the past week or two. Our rooms were across from each other, so we agreed to meet for a drink. Despite being two very different people, we had some lovely conversation. You’d think I’d be tired of networking from five days of Creating Change, but it wasn’t networking. It was just two people making the most of the circumstances.

It’s now almost 2 AM, and I’ll get barely four hours of sleep before I return to the airport and try to make my way back to Harrisburg. I’ll sign off here, but I just want to offer a final thought to make some meaning of the stories I just told.

In life, we only get the days we get. The days that aren’t spent doing the things we think we should be doing are no less a part of our lives than the other days. I’m not thrilled I’m stuck in a hotel in a city overwhelmed with snowfall, but who cares? I can still make something positive out of it. Pouting or venting would do nothing to make me feel better and would only reinforce the frustration of those around me. If we all just took the time to look out for each other and realize we’re all going through these experiences together, I think we’d all be better able to respond to complications with the optimism of opportunity.

This wasn’t what I was expecting, but you know what? It’s a new adventure.

The trick about Creating Change is that it truly is a refreshing experience, but the challenge isn’t just to ride that fresh energy, but to utilize it. Yes, there is the withdrawal of saying farewell to a queer space and going back to the world of heterosexual privilege. But there is also the thrill of knowing that you have a ton of new information and skills to channel into important advocacy work. We go to Creating Change to learn and connect so that we truly can spend the next year creating change.

My “liveblogging” of the conference will continue this week as I continue to share many of the sessions I attended, as well as a new nine-profile Faces For Equality collection I’ll roll out over the next few weeks. I met some amazing people and reconnected with many others. I hope to share as much of this experience with you, my reader, as I can. So many of us have that passion for making a difference in the world through queer advocacy, and the more we share and learn from each other, the better.

Stay tuned for a whole lot more coverage from the Creating Change 2010 conference as well as more of the regular ZFb coverage you can expect!

Yesterday, Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, presented her “State of the Movement” address here at Creating Change. Jeremy Hooper has the full text of the speech over on Good As You (I was sitting next to him as he posted yesterday!). Below I’ll offer a few highlights and thoughts on her speech.

First, I have to say I really appreciated the strong approach she took with President Obama. Last year when we convened, he had just been inaugurated and our hopes were high, despite Rick Warren’s invocation. This year, Carey didn’t hedge on the fact that he hasn’t pulled through for us.

The Bush-Cheney years were behind us. Change was coming. It was no longer a question of “if” but “when.”

And for those of us who had been fighting for so long — and that’s every one of us in this room and millions of others not with us here today — “when” was sounding pretty good.

But now, it’s a year into this new administration, a year into this new Congress. There have been glimmers of the advocate, but certainly not fierceness.

Speeches aren’t change, change is more than words; change is action.

She went on to echo many of the themes Martin Luther King, Jr. often offered in his speeches.

And when it comes to equality, full equality, you either have it or you don’t.

And we don’t.

As per usual, she highlighted many of our successes from the past year, including achieving marriage equality in many states, successfully fighting attempts to roll back discrimination protections, and successfully attaining new protections in other cities. Maine was a loss, but it does not represent the progress of our movement, and Carey added that we will regain marriage equality everywhere.

We have an opportunity to lead. It’s up to us to define what must happen next, what will happen next.

If we do not step up with an expansive view of what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, if we don’t explain that being LGB or T is simply being human, we will be making a mistake.

I particularly enjoyed it when she took an anti-gay organization to task:

Last year, the right-wing organization Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (and believe me, there isn’t a whole lot of truth there) used a quote from my annual speech here at Creating Change in one of its fundraising letters. Like good activists, we turned around and used its letter in our fundraising efforts. Well, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, here is your money quote this year: “We are still recruiting! We are recruiting a movement of people who care about freedom, justice and equality. And we will not stop until all people can live their lives without fear of persecution, prosecution or attack because of who they are or who they love. We are still recruiting!”

However, despite the fervor of her speech, I was a little concerned that there was absolutely no mention of the National Equality March.

I actually encountered Rea in an elevator later in the day and asked her about it. She joked that the original speech was an hour and a half long and reminded me that The Task Force was incredibly supportive in the NEM and also participated. This I knew and was glad for, and definitely is representative of the way NGLTF sets itself apart from HRC.

Still, of all the things to omit, it seemed like a biggie. Mainstream media reports estimated that 200,000 people participated in the National Equality March and accompanying rally. That’s 100x more people than are here at Creating Change this weekend. It was a phenomenal event that had the same uncompromising message of equality that Carey was presenting in this speech.

To me, it seemed odd, and I can’t quite understand it. I wonder if it came down to the fact that NGLTF was not an official partner/organizer of the NEM. While I appreciate that she trimmed down her speech, I think this stark omission still speaks to the way that many of our advocacy organizations are still quite siloed and feel it necessary to control their own messages and be wary of the connections they draw.

Despite this, Carey’s speech was still a rousing call to action, our yearly refresher on the vitality of our movement and the importance of our continued commitment to it.

I encourage you to read the full speech.

The opening plenary session at Creating Change featured Thomas Saenz, President of the Mexican-American legal Defense and Education Fund. He spoke at length about comprehensive immigration reform, reminding us that undocumented immigrants and the queer community have significant overlap and commonalities. (THERE ARE LGBT IMMIGRANTS AND THEY HAVE FAMILIES!)

In fact, all weekend, immigration has proven to be an important and salient issue. It’s important to be allies to other causes, of course, but the connection between these two issues informs the salience of talking about comprehensive immigration reform at a conference on LGBT Equality.

Saenz pointed out to us that there are five significant similarities to consider. Here they are, paraphrased:

1. Many members of both communities have to live in silence and the shadows about their status, with fear of violence and hate crimes and anxiety about whether law enforcement will step up and protect them.

2. Both communities have experienced the phenomenon of being characterized as single-issue movements.

3. Both face forces that seek to discount them in the 2010 census.

4. Both are victims of the “deficit of courage” in Washington, DC.

5. Significant portions of our communities remain outside constitutional law by not being identified as suspect classes.

Much in the same way we’ve seen in the Prop 8 trial that the court is the only check available against a voter initiative, there is similarly not due process for the immigration system. Congress has all of the power to determine how folks can immigrate.

One of the unifying opportunities to create progress for both our communities is the Uniting American Families Act, a bill that often goes unnoticed as an LGBT issue.

The most important goal is achieving full equality. We have to get there one way or another. Saenz pointed out that “We must demand comprehensive immigration reform, whether it’s one bill or many small ones.”

These issues aren’t just about sexual orientation or race and ethnicity. We are talking about families.

While it is the national conference on LGBT equality, there is an extensive commitment to recognizing and celebrating the intersecting diversity.

The opening plenary opened with an explanation about translation. This year, in addition to providing interpreters for ASL, The Task Force has invested in the technology necessary to provide interpretation for Spanish.

In addition, the conference co-chairs Russell Roybal and Susan Hyde took some time to make sure we all knew how to be considerate of people with physical disabilities, such as making sure hallways are accessible and that people don’t interact with folks’ guide dogs.

It makes me incredibly proud to be a part of a conference that is so committed to making sure everyone can participate. True inclusion doesn’t discriminate.

I want to highlight one of the discussions I was able to participate in about working with LGBT issues at faith-based institutions. There were a number of folks in the room who work at such schools, while some others worked at public schools that feel like religiously-affiliated schools, and others (like myself) were just interested in the topic.

There were a lot of different opinions but a lot of great ideas, and the group gave me permission to write about some of our discussions.

A lot of the conversation was focused on how we frame discussions with students who have anti-gay religious beliefs. It doesn’t work to just say “Your beliefs are wrong,” so we have to find ways that allow them to feel welcomed to the conversation, but so that the conversation still allows for challenge and good critical dialogue. Different tactics might need to be used for different organizations, different leaders, and different ministries.

There are some great ways to approach these groups. One of the ideas I really appreciated is engaging in “conversations about how [a person's] faith affects others.” As one of my colleagues pointed out:

Everyone believes human dignity is important.

It’s all about creating common ground. With the diversity of worldviews, consensus is an unrealistic goal, but common ground is a great starting point for progress.

It’s also not helpful to have the conversation on theological grounds. One of my colleagues works at a Jesuit institution, and she uses the Jesuit idea of the “wholeness” of humanity to appeal to the care of others. We can encourage students to include LGBT people without challenging church doctrine.

Part of this is thinking about stretching vs. straining but also helping others relate perspective. For example, if a religious group suggests it’s too much of a stretch for them to tolerate LGBT folks, then maybe it’s also a stretch for us to tolerate them in the same way. This helps frame the discussion toward finding that common ground of human dignity.

At the same time, it can be important at some schools to set pretty clear expectations about what is acceptable. One of my colleagues spoke to the ally training she does and some of the clear limits she sets, such as indicating that “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is not an acceptable compromise. Another of my colleagues spoke to exploring the elasticity of religious laws and variations on interpretation. He made the point that no one could live 100% under Islamic doctrine, so at some point some moral relativism and secular reasoning kicks in. Others pointed out that the voice of the Vatican is not very representative of what most Catholics believe or practice.

Of course, we also remembered that it is possible to be gay and have faith! We can work with religious students to help them understand that many of their queer peers might still be seeking out that faith and community the same as anyone else.

For me, as an atheist who often offers staunch challenges to religiously-affiliated institutions, it was really enlightening to hear all the different ways people are still working in those environments to promote queer equality. Often times the ideal is not practical, but we must all still work towards what we can accomplish in our given circumstances.

…

This was only one little session from the day. I can’t wait to see what else I will learn this weekend. It truly is a remarkable place to be. It’s actually refreshing to be squeezing in time to write to give my voice a break!

More Creating Change updates to come!

Tonight, I thought I’d look back on some of my posts from last year. When I went to Creating Change in Denver, this blog was not even a month old. It’s crazy to think how far it’s come. Here are just a few highlights from my posts last year, all of which you can access via the archive link on the left.

Creating Change is an important experience for two main reasons: 1) It’s a rare opportunity to be in a totally queer space. 2) It’s a rare opportunity to be surrounded by folks similarly passionate about LGBT issues.

Last year, one of our plenary speakers was Dolores Huerta. She had many amazing things to say, but I still love her message to white supremacists:

Get over it. You’re Africans.

And here are some of the things I wrote about last year that really delighted me about being at CC:

» Seeing queer people of color and a ton of programs about their experiences.

» Seeing queer people with disabilities and various programs about their experiences.

» Meeting people who openly identify as intersex.

» Seeing people with trans, queer, and other non-conforming gender idenities AND getting to connect with them.

» Having the opportunity to practice using gender-neutral pronouns.  Sie, Hir, Hirs!

» Using gender-neutral bathrooms!  And I don’t mean those silly little “family restrooms.”  I mean all the big public restrooms are totally gender neutral (think Ally McBeal).

» Seeing enough faux-haws (my own faux-faux-hawk included) to unionize.  I wonder if Dolores Huerta is still around!

Every year, The Task Force’s Executive Director offers a State of the Movement address. Here are a few choice quotes from last year’s:

It’s not biology, but love that makes a family.

There is a big difference between blaming and learning. Let us be learners so that we may be leaders.

First, this moment calls for a new kind of leadership in the LGBT movement — not the leadership of one, but the collaborative leadership of many. Don’t get me wrong, the Task Force and I will assert leadership — but at the Task Force, we believe that strength comes not from hoarding power but by building power and sharing power and using power for good. It is why so much of our work is done through coalitions or convenings like Creating Change.

To give you an idea of how powerful an experience this conference is, here are some of my thoughts from moments after I left last year’s conference. I actually remember sitting in the Denver terminal writing these words:

It’s difficult to leave the conference, because there is something special about that environment.  I made awesome connections with some people that while they were short and thus not yet deep, were significantly more meaningful than a lot of the relationships in my current environment.  People understood and respected what I stood for and were supportive and willing to engage on those topics.  I could connect to others and learn tons of new things about aspects of their identities and experiences that are salient to them.

It’s so true. Given that, essentially, the goal of our work is to reach out so that others are more open to us, it behooves us to be incredibly open to each other. There will be over 2000 attendees at this conference this week! That’s a lot of diverse perspectives. What’s great is the conference demands the kind of respect and openness that allows us all to learn from each other!

And with great highs come balancing lows. The thrill of the conference is countered by the transition back to the “real world.” Here are some of my thoughts from after I left Creating Change last year:

I keep looking around and I have to tell myself that not everybody’s queer.  In fact, where I am, most aren’t.  It’s kind of disconcerting.  I have to go back to being one of the only people in my community who is so passionate about LGBT advocacy.  It’s a downer.  I have cried.

I think we all have to take some time to reflect about how much joy there was to make those connections.  I met people who I feel like I just knew.  There was a feeling of safeness, and as a result an instant connection much deeper than you’d expect.  Perhaps the best metaphor is a family reunion.  Most of the people you don’t know, but you know you’re connected.

It’s so true. (It’s amazing how the passing of a year make your own words feel like someone else’s!)

I wonder if some people have trouble appreciating the goals of queer equality because they’ve never truly experience queer unity. In a way, it’s like experiencing heterosexual privilege for a weekend. You can kind of assume that the people you meet here are “family.” You might not know exactly how they identify, but it’s nice feeling like you can more safely assume there’s a good chance they’re not straight.

Well, it’s getting late, and I don’t want to fall behind on sleep before the conference even gets going. I’m going to try to blog throughout my time here in Dallas, but expect a lot of posts to go up in the week ahead as I catch up on both participating in the conference AND writing about it.

Cheers from Dallas and the National Conference on LGBT Equality!!

I wrote about the principles in June to try to help raise awareness. I also wrote about The Yogyakarta Principles which were written in 2006 to try to address LGBT rights on an international stage. These two documents serve to remind us of what it is we are truly after. When folks ask, “What would true equality look like?” these principles are there to help answer that question.

At the time, I thought the very existence of the principles was revolutionary. You can just look at the list and say, “Yes. This is what it’s all about.” John Bare, one of The Dallas Principles’ co-authors, has informed me a quote of mine is included in their CC presentation. I don’t think I said anything profound when I wrote about them, but maybe the fact I wrote about them at all was profound.

Nine months later, the Principles don’t seem to be any more prominent than they were then. Even I neglected to include them on my sidebar when I redesigned my blog in October (an omission I have rectified). What does it say about the movement for queer equality when the most clear and concise list of goals continues to go unwarranted?

For me, I think it shows how tentative we still are. Rather than demanding full equality, we are content to simply hope that soon it will be handed to us. We are either afraid to stand up for who we are, or as a collective persona, we’ve accepted that we’re destined to always be second-class citizens.

I am not content with either of those attitudes, and I know from the National Equality March that I’m not alone.

As I have followed the Proposition 8 trial, I have noticed something interesting about the way the defense has been trying their case for Prop 8. They often find ways to point out that there has been progress for queer equality, such as domestic partnership or civil union provisions. Their main goal has been to refute the notion that gays and lesbians are politically powerless, but they also illuminate an important symptom of our movement. We compromise. We settle. We get what we can get and proclaim victory. We’re way too gracious at the expense of our own equality.

Every time we make any bit of progress, we should immediately demand more. Until we are fully equal, we are unequal. We just don’t seem to get that.

So, whether you’re attending Creating Change this week or not, take a long hard look at The Dallas Principles. As our most prominent allies, such as President Obama or the Human Rights Campaign, continue to hedge on fighting for our equality, we have to seriously consider why we let them. Look at this simple list of what total and immediate equality would look like and tell yourself you’re content settling for less.

FULL CIVIL RIGHTS GOALS

Being united by common principles and engaging in united action, we will achieve the following goals:

1. DIGNITY AND EQUALITY. Every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender person has inherent dignity and worth, and has the right to live free of discrimination and harassment.

2. FAMILY. Every LGBT person has the right to a family without legal barriers to immigration, civil marriage or raising children.

3. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY. Every LGBT person has the right to economic opportunity free from discrimination in employment, public housing, accommodation, public facilities, credit, and federally funded programs and activities.

4. EDUCATION. Every LGBT child and youth has the right to an education that is affirming, inclusive and free from bullying.

5. NATIONAL SECURITY. Every LGBT person should have the opportunity to serve our country openly and equally in our military and foreign service.

6. CRIME. Every LGBT person should enjoy life protected against bias crimes.

7. HEALTH CARE. Every person should have access to affordable, high quality, and culturally competent health care without discrimination.

I want to end this post by drawing your attention to two points from the call to action.

3. All LGBT individuals must accept personal responsibility to do everything within their power for equality and should get involved in the movement by volunteering, giving and being out.

5. Our allies need to be proactive in public support for full civil rights.

Are you doing all that you can?

Do you have a good reason not to?

Click here to find out what you could be doing. Read the full proclamation below:

The Dallas Principles

Whoo! I am super excited!! There are a lot of great things about Creating Change… being in a totally queer environment, meeting amazing people with strong voices… (hopefully I don’t embarrass myself like I did at the National Equality March when I met Kerry Eleveld and it didn’t click who I was talking to. Oops!) Truly, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s National Conference on LGBT Equality is a marvelous way to spend half a week!

I wrote a number of blog posts from the conference last year in Denver, but this year, I want to be more proactive about it. First, I’m going to start a new Faces For Equality collection, so throughout the months of February and March, be prepared to meet a ton of new amazing people who are standing up for queer rights!

But, since not everyone has the same opportunity to travel to Dallas for five days, I also want to try to help spread the wealth of knowledge that will be presented!

That being said, I want to give my readers the opportunity to suggest what they’d like to learn more about. I have a few presentations I definitely want to attend, but I’m kind of open about which other workshops I’ll go to. So, to all my readers out there, what do you think? Take a look at the plethora of workshops being offered, and leave comments about what you think would be interesting! I can’t promise I’ll attend them all, but I’d definitely love to take into consideration what my readers want to actually read about this week.

Below is the full list. Please leave comments with ideas about which workshops I should attend and blog about!

(The first doc is a list of the workshops organized by topics. The second doc has descriptions for all the workshops.)

Creating Change Program Sessions by Topic

Creating Change 2010 Workshops

For the complete Program Book and other details, please visit the Creating Change website!

I hope that being shrouded in darkness helps convey the solemnity of this vlog. I don’t want anyone to think this is the kind of issue you can be bright and cheery about. Just watch, you’ll understand.

» Don’t forget! Tonight is the finale of The Sing-Off. Voices of Lee, the group from gay-hostile Lee University, is in the finals.

» On Friday, I wrote a piece called, “How Long Until We Have Campus Atheist Resource Centers?” This post, while seemingly about a very specific concept, is a piece I’m very proud of. Even if the idea of college diversity education isn’t totally relevant for you, this article is an effective synthesis of a lot of the writing I’ve done over the past year. I hope you’ll take some time to read through it and check out the previous posts that inform it.

» I am proud to say that the UK-based online publication Gay & Lesbian Humanist has published one of my articles this month. While hopefully you’ve already read my piece, “An Atheist Who Loves The Xmas Season,” I definitely encourage you to visit the G&LH site and check out their other content.

» Peterson Toscano, well-known ex-gay survivor and advocate, has offered some kind words about ZackFord Blogs on his own blog. If you haven’t ever watched any of his videos before, you are missing out.

» In October, I wrote a piece called “Hope College Prefers Moral Ignorance Over Cognitive Dissonance,” about the decision of Hope College to ban Dustin Lance Black and his film Milk from campus. Today, Dustin Lance Black has a detailed account of what happened from his perspective and the very positive events that have transpired since. It’s definitely worth reading.

» If you didn’t already notice, ZackFord Blogs now has its own Facebook Fan Page. It’s an easy way to follow ZFb updates and hopefully create further discussion too!

» Some of my recent posts have sparked some interesting (and challenging) discussions. If you’re really bored and want to read some LONG comments streams, check out the comments for “How The AFA Spins Creationist Propaganda” and the Newsvine for “Why Is It “Disrespectful” and “Offensive” To Challenge Religious Beliefs?”

» If you haven’t already, make plans to attend the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force 2010 Creating Change Conference this February in Dallas! Yours truly will be there along with Ameriqueer/Bilerico blogger Phil Reese and many many others! I hope to see you there!!

» One of my favorite holidays of “The Holidays” has gotten very little attention this year: Decemberween. Celebrated exactly 55 days after Halloween, Decemberween is a truly festive holiday. After the traditional meal of bunnies, gather ’round the fire to reflect on how Archibald and The Popular Vote helped welcome The First Decemberween. May you all have the best Decemberween ever.

» I’ve written a couple of posts this year about the “War on Christmas,” and thankfully, the “war” had very little momentum in 2009. Because of all the business about the Gap ads, I thought I’d leave you with a delightfully gay parody of them (Hat tip JMG). Happy holiday Monday!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dL-O4_ysnM