St. Louis Reports from the 2010 Creating Change Conference

    DALLAS, TEXAS - The 22-annual National Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality (Creating Change) is getting underway at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in beautiful downtown Dallas, Tex., Feb. 3 - 7, 2010.

    Produced by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Creating Change Conference (as it is affectionately known) is the nation’s pre-eminent political, leadership and skills-building conference for the LGBT social justice movement. Since 1988, Creating Change has been the opportunity for thousands of committed people to develop and hone their skills, celebrate victories, build community, and to be inspired by visionaries of our LGBT movement and allied movements for justice and equality.

    In 2004 St. Louis was honored to play host to this historic gathering and the Gateway City will be well represented at this year's conference. Vital VOICE Magazine is pleased to publish the following blog and pictures from local conference goers from SAGE and Transhaven Missouri as they give us a birds eye view from Texas as their schedules permit:

TUESDAY, FEB. 2

BY MARGARET "FLOWING" JOHNSON

I'm in Dallas attending the Creating Change Conference under the sponsorship of the St. Louis chapter of SAGE. (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) It's off to a great start. When I hopped on the airport shuttle, I sat down next to a dykey looking woman who seemed familiar. I said, "I'd guess you're headed for the Creating Change Conference." She beamed me a smile of agreement and said, "I think I know you." After an exploration of where we'd met it turned out it was in St. Louis. She'd obtained a degree in Women's Studies from UMSL and now she runs a LGBT center at a university in Colorado. We decided we knew one another from "around town."

On entering the hotel I was buoyed by the incredible number of LGBTQ folks registering, chatting, and completely inhabiting the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. I forget how liberating it is to be surrounded by family. Later, I and a co-worker from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival took a stroll through the streets of Dallas to a Mexican restaurant for margaritas and dinner. Oyla!

Now, back in my hotel room, I've just finished studying the 91 page program for the conference. Looks invigorating, challenging, and exhausting.

The work begins tomorrow with day-long institutes. I'll be attending one entitled "Challenging and Transforming White Supremacy in our Work: Our Vision, Our Roles." This institute, according to the program, will focus on white folks working in building liberation movements and how we can build an anti-racist movement.

The last time I attended a Creating Change Conference was in 2004 in St. Louis. It's gonna be great fun to reconnect with the movement and old friends, and rediscover the power and passion of committing time and energy to the work of liberation. I'll send along some reports as the conference progresses and time permits.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 3

BY: ROBYN CAROLYN MONTAGUE

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. No, not listening to Simon and Garfunkel (who?), up early, and "Wide Awake In Dreamland" (sorry, Pat). Up early for the first morning here at the 22-Creating Change Conference, in Dallas, ending Sunday. My partner Carl and I did not fly and took to driving the scenic route of I-44 and I-35 through Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. I had never been to Texas and my travels since transitioning have been limited due to work in my advocacy, so there was a bit of ‘hmmmm’ in the thoughts of my travel plans.

As it was, the roadtrip was of little or no issue, as I had mapped out where the most probable ‘friendly’ stops might be for me. No, not one to be shy, but being the person I am decided to be cautious as opposed to outright ‘in your face.’ The least friendly ‘comfort’ stop was at a convenience store sort of place, along I-35 south of Oklahoma City. There, the attendant gave me a dirty look but I simply marched into the ladies room, marched right out and back into the auto. Not so bad considering that the other option was a truck stop across the road with twenty or so tractor-trailer rigs in the lot, I felt that they might not be too interested in my brand of activism. Carl and I shared the driving duties, though I retained the authority on the radio. Lots of Lady Gaga and Madonna were played (and yes, many times), Gustavsen didn’t exactly disapprove but did give me a bit of a ‘look,’ now and then. On into Dallas in the GPS-guided Revlon Red TransVan, we pulled up to the front door, unloaded the van and parked it directly across the street in a garage, right in the first available space. Wow. Lucky.

The hotel itself is huge, but we found our room (with the help of the valet who pushed the huge valet cart of everything possible we had thought to bring ;). A quick run down to the auto for a second load of ‘stuff’ that I found necessary for my ‘Dallas Command Post,’ including three cases of the flavored carbonated water this cat likes to quench her thirst with and yes, a dozen Cinnabons (Did you think I would travel without them?).

To bed early and now (as said) wide awake in dreamland, this Conference of about two thousand LGBTIQA leaders and volunteers will start in several hours from now. Yeah, an early riser, but even earlier as I had received two phone calls from some lady wanting me to give her ‘wake up’ calls in the morning (wrong number no doubt), I was ready to really give her a ‘wake up’ call should she have called a third time.

As far as the Conference goes, I will of course be focusing on those workshops, seminars, caucuses that are directed to those advocacies for the Transgender Community. Of these, there are three that are directed to ‘Trans-inclusion in LGB(T) organizations, in which I will bring back for use as needed for those organizations looking to strengthen their Transgender inclusivity. Carl, will be doing a lot of work in the Community Center-related arena, and some ‘running a business’ courseware for TransHaven.

BY: A. EUGENE POTCHEN-WEBB

I arrived on Amtrak, ON TIME, and with NO displaced luggage. The taxi ride to the hotel was under $7. This was my first experience on Amtrak itself, as I had not ridden a train anywhere since I was in Junior High School (in the late '60s). The people-watching in the train station in St. Louis, prior to boarding, was interesting enough all by itself. My wife sat with me, and we are both avid people-watchers, so the discussion was lively between her and I. There was speculation about for whom the "Welcome Home" balloons might be, and she mentioned that there was a Naval Training Station called Great Lakes, so she was wondering is some recruit might be coming home from basic training. Where that idea came from exactly was not entirely clear to me, but no matter, it was interesting. Then there was a guy in tight jeans, with a rather large belt buckle, a stylish leather jacket, perfect hair, clean nails, and a short scarf. Even if I had not spent the majority of my adult life around gay and lesbian folks, I would have pegged this guy as G-A-Y! We figured that he must be meeting someone who was coming in. I wondered, aloud, how his passing by me (numerous times) might have looked had I been there alone. So guess WHAT?!? I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel, waiting to meet Margaret "Flowing" Johnson to go for dinner, and THERE HE WAS! Walking through the hotel lobby! I burned UP my phone texting my wife, while damned near falling off my chair. Well anyway, I'll catch up with him later....

The train ride was rather uneventful, but again, the people-watching was cool. Had a nice chat with a fellow from Mexico, who had come to the states to see his son who had been in an auto accident. Watched an elderly lady across from me, as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I heard her tell the attendant that this was her first trip ever on the train. Saw a fellow try to walk through a wall. I found myself, as dawn was breaking, being extremely grateful to be letting someone else "do the driving" for me. I had napped off-and-on all night, then became totally enthralled, as the day dawned, with the scenery that I never would have seen from a plane or even from a car.

After having spent the majority of my first afternoon here clearing up a mix-up at the front desk of the hotel, I finally decided that a nap was NOT in my forecast for the day, so I went across the street to register for the conference itself. That effort went considerably more smoothly than my experience at the front desk. Just a few moments and I was officially AT the Creating Change Conference in Dallas. I do have to say that I do, and always have hated PINK, so the lanyard they gave with my name tag had to G-O! I can hang with the lavender accents on the bag, but the pink lanyard was not going to work for me, in the least. It was immediately deposited in my room.

Margaret and I met for dinner, and walked down to this really cool mexican restaurant/bar, and proceeded to stuff ourselves with appetizers as we swilled margaritas, and caught-up with what all we had missed sharing with each other since she was teaching and I was a student at Forest Park Community College, where she was the faculty advisor for VOICES, the LGBT student organization. Little did I know what a light-weight she was in the drink department, until she was digging in her wallet for money, and stated that she was DRUNK! On TWO margaritas! We had a good laugh over that. We took the obligatory picture of each other taking a picture of each other, and with that out of the way, got our waitress to take one of us together.

What an honor to be attending this conference with this woman I have admired for so very long, as a walking history book of gay rights activism in and around St. Louis!

Here's to a good nights' sleep for both of us, and some great workshops to be attended tomorrow!

BY MARGARET "FLOWING" JOHNSON

Today features a day-long institute on anti-racism and racial justice along with a People of Color organizing institute. The planned events for the day will improve the skills needed to address institutional racism and fully integrate racial justice into LGBT organizational plans. The Racial Justice Institutes are a continuing part of the Creating Change Conferences and intentionally connect issues, identities, and communities.

Once again, my day began with personal connection. The woman behind me in line for coffee was a friend from the Womyn’s Music Festival and we exchanged cell phone numbers. Carrying my coffee, I followed the flow of traffic into the meeting room. This truly is a gathering of the tribe. All ages, shades of color, and abilities filled the room with the buzz of conversation and excitement. I spotted many old friends and hugs and greetings ensued.

The talking began, and I remembered why I love this movement – why I committed myself to it long ago – why I am glad to be involved again. Part of the goal of this conference is to work on a new strategic plan and to look at NGLTF’s history of being a progressive force within the mainstream LBGT movements.

The following paragraphs included paraphrasing from various speeches and comments during the plenary. At the end of this article I will list the organizations represented by the speakers.

One of the differences between the NGLTF’s approach and those of most other organizations in this movement is the response to the statement, "But that’s not a gay issue." We’ve heard that in regards to reproductive rights, racism, and First Nation issues. But, ignoring the intersections of issues denies our ability to be whole people within our movement. Intersectional movements require we think about gender, race, class, abilities and other issues and consider what organizing would look like when seen through a lens of justice. We should think less about our rights and more about how to create a just society. It is, bottom line, the choice between justice politics versus assimilation politics.

We’re in a defining movement moment as we begin to see successes. This leads us to ponder several questions. Do we know where we are as a movement? Do we know where we are going? What do we do when we get there?

A speaker from the First Nation spoke clearly of intersectional politics. She said that what they have to offer is the memory of an entire people. Native people considered those who would be called LGBT today to be sacred and special. LGBT people were the teachers of children and were enfolded and embraced by their communities. She said: we bring you that memory of our sacredness; you bring us your recognition of our need to maintain our sovereignty with the U. S. government.

Smaller movements, and local grassroots organizations, inform the larger movements and illuminate meaningful agendas. Issues are complex. An example, cited by a woman working against violent homophobia said, "Sending violent offenders to prison doesn’t make us safer. Dismantling homophobia and transphobia makes us safer."

And finally, we need to realize that we will make mistakes as we do this work. The important thing is to acknowledge them, learn from them, share what we learned, and move on.

Organizations: NGLTF, First Nations Collective, the Disability Justice Collective, Audre Lorde Project, Southerners on New Ground, and Queers for Economic Justice.

BY: ROBYN CAROLYN MONTAGUE

I had gotten up a bit early on Wednesday, did some looking around the hotel, did breakfast and then went to the Daylong Institute "Challenging and Transforming White Supremacy In Our Work." This was one of many courses in the Racial Justice Institute Sessions.

This institute training brought us back to review the 'gay white male' as being seen as the principals behind the LGBT Equality Movement with little or no inclusion of people of color. The coursework took us through the concepts of 'Us' and 'Just us' and "Intersectional Organization." Intended for a 'white' classroom, the course showed how we (white activists) were 'all experts in white supremacy, yet, there are no 'experts.' We were challenged to share how we as activists/organizations can truly people of color inclusive, where we listen as much as we self-reflect on our advocacy's. To become inclusive, we cannot simply put a person of color on a Board, as they are then just 'identity,' but instead they should be part of the strategy. A very thought provoking topic of inclusion, yet not that of patronizing. This particular session had over 100 attendees, and we worked as a whole and as groups in sharing thoughts on to work to inclusion of people of color.

After this particular session, we walked back over through the lobby area. The number of attendees had significantly became apparent, this will be a very well attended event. I ran into and talked to Mara Keisling (Exec Director of National Center for Transgender Equality - NCTE), and Shane Morgan, Co-Founder and Chair of TransOhio. Other trans notables expected to attend and speak are Justin Tanis (NCTE), Missouri's own Kylar Broadus, Masen Davis (Exec Director of the Transgender Law Center) and Gunner Scott (Exec Director - Massachusetts Transgender Politcal Coalition) and the list goes on and on, a venerable who's who of the Transgender Brain Trust at one conference.

Today's schedule for Robyn will be that of the Daylong Institute for "Trans Rights Now," with the luminaries noted previously (and others) as speakers and facilitators. Looks like Miss Robyn will need to be on her best behavior. Hmmmmm.

St. Louis Reports from the 2010 Creating Change Conference, Part II

St. Louis Reports from the 2010 Creating Change Conference, Part III