LGBTQ+ Activists: Creating Change Conference Starts Thursday Online

Creating Change 2021

For the first time in 33 years, the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change conference has gone virtual, giving LGBTQ+ activists an unprecedented opportunity to attend, learn skills, connect with thousands of others, and continue the fight for full queer rights. Below is a run down of the events, workshops, get togethers, and entertainment over four days, from Thursday, January 28 to Sunday, January 31. Register and learn more here. 

• Creating Change 2021
• THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2021
• FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021
• SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2021
• SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2021

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2021

OPENING PLENARY

Noon to 1:00 PM ET / 9:00 to 10:00 AM PT

Opening Keynote. Natalie Diaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. She's the author of When My Brother Was an Aztec and Postcolonial Love Poem, and is director of the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands and is the chair of Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University.

Opening Panel: History in the Making: Black Executive Leadership in the LGBTQ+ Movement. For the first time in history, three of the national legacy LGBTQ equality organizations (National LGBTQ Task Force, Human Rights Campaign, and National Center for Lesbian Rights) will be led by Black Executive Directors. With racial inequity as a major priority for the Biden/Harris administration and a continuing patchwork of civil rights laws across our country, their leadership of these organizations come at an opportune time. The opening plenary will feature Kierra Johnson of the Task Force, Alphonso David of HRC, and Imani Rupert-Gordon.

DAY LONG INSTITUTES, PART 1

1:15 to 6:15 PM ET / 10:15 am to 3:15 PM PT

• Indigenous Fortitude & Brilliance. This day long institute is an opportunity for LGBTQ+ indigenous, indigiqueer & two spirit people to share their experience & cultural importance with the broader LGBTQ+ community & would be allies. Participants will learn, grow & cultivate cultural humility. Topics of interest will encircle traditional roles, contemporary challenges & fortified futures. Euro settler descendants will yield to indigenous narrative. The Creating Change Indigenous Leadership Planning Committee recognizes the term indigenous includes people of many nations.
• Queer & Trans API Institute: Building a Queer Asian American & Pacific Islander Movement. Network and get to know LGBTQ AAPI activists from all around the country! Come and learn about our LGBTQ AAPI movement history and our place in racial justice movements. We will learn how we organize and advocate as LGBTQ AAPIs, practice engaging in media advocacy, and build skills around organization development through a trans* and gender justice lens. We will lift up the voices of Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander queer communities in the U.S. and the intersectional social justice movements that engage us.
• The Black Institute: State of the Black LGBTQ Movement. This year's Black Institute, presented by the National Black Justice Coalition, focuses on issues affecting the Black LGBTQ+/Same Gender Loving community. During our time together, we will collectively work to strengthen the capacity of Black LGBTQ+/SGL community leaders and activists to engage in meaningful and sustained political and civic engagement during the next legislative session and beyond. This year's theme is “New Ideas for a New Era,” which reflects the new time we are moving into with a new presidential administration as well as a host of new diverse political leaders and elected officials. This Institute is intended only for people who identify fully or partially as racially Black or of African descent.
• Unión=Fuerza Latinx Institute. Join us for Unión=Fuerza Latinx Institute, an annual national gathering of Latinx LGBTQ+ people, allies, and organizations working towards our collective liberation and the advancement of LGBTQ+ Latinx power and activism. This bilingual virtual session is part training, part strategy session, part network building, and part PARTY! Unión=Fuerza is a celebration of our rich cultural traditions, which also will provoke conversations on issues critical to our communities and emerging, innovative policy discussions. Attendees include community advocates, leaders, students, academics, government officials, artists, and more! For more information, visit: www.unionfuerza.org.
• White People's Institute for Ending Racism: What Kind of Ancestors Shall We Be? What kind of white ancestor do you want to be? 2020 brought us protests and uprisings to stop police violence against black and brown bodies. Many white people stood up and joined these efforts in large numbers but we need to reach the people beyond our friends and chosen family. We need to stretch into the spaces where we are unknown. As we move more fully into our power as anti-racists, we mobilize other white people to join us, to build collective power to resist white supremacy culture and structural racism.

FILM SCREENING AND Q&A: CURED

7:30 to 9:00 PM ET / 4:30 to 6:00 PM PT

The documentary CURED illuminates the campaign that led the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its manual of mental illnesses in 1973. This is, not coincidentally, the same year the National LGBTQ Task Force was founded.

OPENING CRUISE

9:00 to 11:00 PM ET / 6:00 to 8:00 PM PT

What’s the connection you won’t forget at CC21? The Sexual Liberation Collective and the Creating Change sex track organizers are delighted to bring you the Opening Cruise. Whether you’re looking to find a new friend, a sexy hook-up, or the love of your life, the Opening Cruise is the place to be on Thursday night!

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021

DAY LONG INSTITUTES, PART 2

Noon to 5:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM PT

• Aromantic and Asexual Institute. Join your fellow aro and ace community members as we explore identity, activism, and community issues together! Through breakout sessions that will dive into complex issues affecting our community, strategies for community organizing, and various marginalized identities that many of us hold, we’ll each have countless opportunities to learn, share our experiences, and grow in our community involvement and activism.
• Disability Justice Day Long Institute. There is no line between disabled activists and queer activists; we exist in both worlds. Ableism and inaccessibility keep disabled queer people out of organizing and out of queer spaces in general. Disabled queer people have led movements only to be left to the side when we’re inconvenient.
• Executive Director/CEO Institute: Thriving in an Age of COVID. Unprecedented Demands for Racial Justice and after Four Years of the Trump Administration. This institute is for LGBTQ Executive Directors/CEOs and is intended to provide support and skills building in the areas most important for leading a nonprofit organization.
• Faith in a Virtual World. We won the presidential election, so now what? This Faith Institute offers both reflection and action to help guide our paths.
• Mapping Your Desire: The Sexual Liberation Institute. As our ancestor and movement trailblazer Audre Lorde wrote famously -- the erotic is power! Sex isn’t ‘beside the point’ in our activism, it is the bedrock of our authentic selves, and a critical source of strength that our adversaries would have us betray and deny. Desire Mapping is a dynamic tool for sexual liberation that hinges on the idea that when we are able to claim and pursue our authentic desire we can more powerfully seek justice and re-make the world.
• Owning Your Power: Strategies to Strengthen the Next Generation of Leaders to End the HIV Epidemic. AIDS United has extensive experience in leadership development and capacity building of PLHIV through our different programs. This day-long institute broken out into multiple sessions will provide attendees with information and strategies for how to engage in public health, public policy, digital organizing, while maintaining self-care as emerging leaders.
• The Fire This Time! Youth Activism, Mobilizing and Direct Action 101. Young people are demanding change - conducting walk-outs, meeting with community and university leaders, and speaking out about LGBTQ health and rights, but we know demands are nothing without a plan and concrete tools to lead successful campaigns. This institute is designed to support young people interested in LGBTQ activism and organizing for change.
• Trans Leadership Lab. Activists of all experience levels will gain access to skills and insights focused on some of the latest issues currently shaping the trans movement. Attendees of this all-day institute will interact and learn directly from trans movement leaders across the country making breakthroughs in housing, health care, crowdfunding and mutual aid, and physical and cyber safety.
• Strength in Numbers: Building a Strong Bi-plus Community. This year’s bi+ institute will galvanize, empower, and strengthen bi+ individuals and build community and movement through learning and unlearning, and sharing of ideas, tools, and strategies. This space is primarily for those who identify as bi+ (bi, pan, queer, or any other non-binary sexuality), though others are welcome to attend.

KEYNOTE SESSION WITH DOMINIQUE JACKSON

5:30 to 6:30 PM ET / 2:30 to 3:30 PM PT

Emcee Sandra Valls hosts a plenary session featuring a keynote speech by Pose’s Dominique Jackson, plus presentations for the Susan J. Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement and Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund Award for Outstanding LGBTQ Leadership for Immigration Rights, and more!

BE BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL WITH SEPHORA

7:00 to 8:00 PM ET / 4:00 to 5:00 PM PT

Join beauty experts from Sephora and get ready for the Agents of Change Ball in a step by step tutorial you can follow along with products you have at home. We'll be demonstrating a fun glittery eye and bold lip look to dazzle and delight. The session is designed for transgender and GNC community members. Space is limited to 40 attendees, first come first serve! Participants will receive a gift product kit by mail after the conference! Be on the lookout for a link to register, starting Thursday.

AGENTS OF CHANGE BALL

8:00 to 11:00 PM ET / 5:00 to 8:00 PM PT

Bring the House Ball to your house! Organized by WC Father Angel Revlon (CA), Lady Penelope (NYC) and Legendary Oso Milan (Miami) with national judges and benefitting the House Lives Matter Mutual Aid Fund.

GAME NIGHT

8:00 to 11:00 PM ET / 5:00 to 8:00 PM PT

Want to have some wholesome fun? Come to our virtual game night! No need for special equipment. No need to own copies of games. Just bring your fabulous self. There will be various party games over zoom including 5 Second Rule and Jackbox. Also on offer will be a Dungeons & Dragons one shot! D&D spots are limited and first come, first served. Email Cary Webb at cwebb@thetaskforce.org for sign up and game details.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2021

WORKSHOP SESSIONS, BLOCK 1

Noon to 1:15 PM ET / 9:00 to 10:15 AM PT

• An Exploration of Queer and Trans Ministry. Members of the Trans Seminarian Leadership Cohort, a group of trans and nonbinary seminary students, will explore ministry and religious leadership in our current social and political climate. Presenters will each share their own calling, experience in religious formation, and share how the state of the world including continued anti-Black racism and COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted BIPOC and transgender and nonbinary communities.
• Two Spirit 101. Come learn the basics of indigenous & first nations peoples relationship to colonization, forced assimilation & how that shows up in Americanized gender & sexuality. Indigenous participants will have an opportunity to culture share & claim visibility while non indigenous participants will gain an understanding of two spirit varied traditional roles, the ways colonization & forced assimilation effects indigenous & nonindigenous communities, contemporary ways of being, stories of reclamation, resistance & how to be inclusive of two spirit people within LGBTIQ culture.
• Hopes and Dreams: Reaching High on Policy Advocacy in 2021. With the Biden-Harris Administration in power we have an amazing opportunity to make substantial progress by pressing for federal regulations and policies to improve LGBTQ+ people’s daily lives. We also must advocate to repair the deep damage done over the past four years, while aiming high and looking for new ways to reach even higher.
• These are a Few of my Favorite Things. The Creating Change Sex Track faculty will share highlights of their sexual biographies. For 75 minutes, we will create a continually shifting group of sexy story tellers to excite and inspire everyone to explore their own favorite things. Come prepared for transformative sharing, ecstatic revelation, belly-deep laughter and... who knows!
• Hiring Revolution. People across the LGBTQ movement have woken up, looked around, and realized that too many of the faces looking back at them were similar to their own. Whole non-profits, projects, and campaigns, regardless of their espoused racial and gender diversity goals, genuinely struggle with how to consistently and effectively recruit, hire, and retain top talent that includes Black, Indigenous, People of Color, women, trans, gender nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming leaders. In this workshop, we will reimagine and co-create new hiring processes that align with our vision, values, mission, and goals.
• We’re Here, We’re Queer…and We are on Deadline: LGBTQ Journalists, the State of LGBTQ Media and How to Get Your Story Told! It has been a challenging time for all journalists, but especially queer journalists. From the economic to the political to the pandemic, how can we as activists work with journalists to tell our stories, amplify issues of importance to the LGBTQ+ community and advocate for more inclusive and diverse media coverage?
• Let’s Break The Binary and the Carceral State: Queers Abolishing Prisons and Policing. As we work diligently to dismantle systems that seek to diminish the spectrum of gender identity and all of the glorious ways LGBTQ2S+ folx exist in our community, we are missing the opportunity to engage with necessary support of our Queer family impacted by incarceration. In this session members of the Black and Pink National Team led by Executive Director Dominique Morgan, will share the landscape and impact of their work they far and offer a snapshot of where they are looking to in 2021 and beyond to bring us closer to a society where liberation for all is actualized.
• Aging in the LBGTQ Community: Strategies for Fighting Isolation and Loneliness. As the US population ages, many LGBTQ adults face an increasingly isolated and lonely future. As long-time workers and activist in the field, the panelists will discuss the causes of this high rate of isolation, and the harmful physical and psychological impact which has been exacerbated during the pandemic.

WORKSHOP SESSIONS, BLOCK 2

1:30 to 2:45 PM ET / 10:30 to 11:45 AM PT

• Liberating Your Divine Identity: A Spiritual Conversation. In this workshop, you will come together in community to gain a better understanding of your sacred worth and divine identity while exploring tools that support liberating your divine spirit.
• Queering the Academy: Affirming Queer Ways of Knowing, Learning, & Education. Reflecting on both existing & evolving queer- and trans- affirming educational practices, this panel will story-share, skill-share, and collectively explore lessons we’ve learned as we have queerly navigated the rapidly changing landscape of education. This discussion will center heavily on higher education, but will offer ideas and tools that can be adapted to participants wanting to educate, organize, and knowledge-build from a queer/trans lens.
• Vice President Auntie? Organizing Friendly Administrations for Systemic Change. In this workshop we will review The Equality Act, Justice in Policing Act, and the Breathe Act. Additionally, we will help inform and instruct participants on organizing strategies like lobbying legislators and organizing communities and how to avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made in the past to move legislation into law. Join us for a fun, interactive, informative workshop on how to avoid perpetuating a cycle of covert racism and discrimination.
• Sexy Survivors. Many LGBTQI+ people are survivors of various forms of sexual violence. Sex and survivorship is rarely talked about in queer circles. Join us for a creative, interactive, and empowering dialogue on surviving sexual abuse and how we have navigated safe and fulfilling sexual lives.
• Deaf Queer Liberation: Our Time is Now. In this session, participants will have the opportunity to meet and learn from members of the Deaf and DeafBlind LGBTQ communities who will share some of their lived experiences and the barriers they face. As we shift to virtual organizing and collaborating during the pandemic, it is also imperative that we do not forget about access for our Deaf and DeafBlind Queer siblings.
• Trans Talk Across Generations: Teens and Trailblazers, Truths and Tensions. We are in an unprecedented, challenging and critical time for the trans/GNC/nonbinary/intersex communities. Trans visibility continues to increase in positive ways, as more folx come out but we also see on-going systemic attacks on trans people. What can we learn from the experiences of elders? As LGBTQ youth come out younger and younger with more fluidity and less restrictive labels, how does their experience inform our work? What are the issues that have created tension across generations and how can we all work together and learn from each other?
• Ace and Aro Q&A: An Introduction to Asexuality and Aromanticism. Every year, more asexual and aromantic people show up in LGBTQ+ spaces seeking support, resources, and community. In order to accommodate this growing group in your organization, workplace, school, and activism, a clear understanding of these identities is essential. This session will build that understanding while highlighting specific intersectional issues that arise from systemic racism, ableism, and cissexism, and how these forms of marginalization differently impact various aro and ace identities.

STATE OF THE MOVEMENT PLENARY

3:15 to 4:30 PM ET / 12:15 am to 1:30 PM PT

Rea Carey and Kierra Johnson deliver the annual state of the movement, along with presentation of the SAGE Award to Mama Gloria, more from emcee Sandra Valls, and some other surprises!

CAUCUS SESSIONS, ROUND 1

5:00 to 6:15 PM ET / 2:00 to 3:15 PM PT

• Two Spirit Caucus
• Ace + Aro Caucus
• Youth Caucus
• Black Caucus
• Bi+ Caucus #1
• Deaf Caucus
• Masculine-of-Center Caucus
• Latinx Caucus
• Sex Worker Caucus
• Queering Public Service: LGBTQ Government Employee Caucus

GAME NIGHT

8:00 to 11:00 PM ET / 5:00 to 8:00 PM PT

Want to have some wholesome fun? Come to our virtual game night! No need for special equipment. No need to own copies of games. Just bring your fabulous self. There will be various party games over zoom including 5 Second Rule and Jackbox. Also on offer will be a Dungeons & Dragons one shot! D&D spots are limited and first come, first served. Email Cary Webb at cwebb@thetaskforce.org for sign up and game details.

VIRTUAL VARIETY SHOW!

8:00 to 11:00 pm ET / 5:00 to 8:00 pm PT

All CC21 Attendees are welcome. We are all talented - performances can be a song, drag, burlesque, poem, secret talent, or cheerleading. All acts are allowed three minutes. You must be present to perform. Performers will be called out in order that they register. All performances should be compatible for a Zoom room.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2021

WORKSHOP SESSIONS, BLOCK 3

Noon to 1:15 PM ET / 9:00 to 10:15 AM PT

• Turning Your Sermon into a Sound-bite. Many states have no explicit nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community in housing, health care or when in public spaces at the state of federal level. A training for all interested parties to build and sharpen your communication skills in engaging with elected officials on advocating for such nondiscrimination protections.
• Indigenous Youth & Elder Panel. In settler colonial environments our most vulnerable are often given the least space & time to share their perspectives. This panel will consist of 3 indigenous youth organizing against the KXL pipeline & 3 indigenous elders.
• Sex in the Time of COVID. The Creating Change Sexual Liberation Track has always emphasized the power we can access to fuel our justice work when we're living our most authentic sexualities and making empowered choices about our bodies. Unfortunately, over the past year, our access to this power has been greatly curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It Ain't What They Call You, It's What You Answer To. As individual trans or ENBY people make the life-affirming steps of living the truth of our genders, we all face the task of doing self-advocacy. We have to inform people of our new name (if there is one), tell them the pronouns we use (if we have them), and often we have to help or even push others to adjust when they don’t immediately come through.
• Ending the Harm: Conversion Therapy Fact, Fiction and Fighting for our Lives. What we know is this: the dangerous and discredited practice of so-called “conversion therapies” continues. According to the Trevor Project, the scope of this nightmare is bigger than most people imagine and lives continue to be destroyed. Join advocates and survivors to learn the latest on what is being done to end conversion therapy and how you can help.
• Sexual Health for System-Impacted Youth. Youth of color and LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in child welfare, juvenile justice, and homelessness systems of care. Children in government custody often face challenges accessing accurate, affirming, and inclusive information about their sexual health needs, leading to a variety of health issues. Through a reproductive justice lens, participants in this session will discuss concrete steps that advocates and providers can take to ensure youth have access to accurate information and preventative measures critical to their sexual wellbeing.
• Combatting TERFism. In 2020, the continued rise in TERFism yielded the most high-profile public figure yet to profess their supposed feminism while excluding trans people – J. K. Rowling. Her statements underscore the growing linkages among those who have very little else in common – Christian Right organizations, anti-trans womens’ groups, gender-critical conversion therapists sports bodies, etc. – who are deliberately partnering to give anti-transgender advocacy the appearance of a broader consensus across the political spectrum.

1:30 to 2:45 PM ET / 10:30 to 11:45 AM PT

• Wonderfully Made: Yuval David Film Preview and Discussion. This documentary film explores the challenges and aspirations of LGBTQ+ persons of faith in how they reconcile and in many cases powerfully embrace their beliefs despite institutionalized religion's historic and ongoing rejection and persecution of LGBTQ+ people. Yuval David, the writer, producer and narrator of the film, will share a preview of the soon to be released film and lead a discussion about the issues expressed in the film.
• Decolonizing Desire. Colonization and white supremacy have separated us all (particularly QTBIPOC folx) from healthy, positive relationships with our bodies and sexualities. Conditioning through, and living within, these systems makes it difficult for us to fully engage our own agency to create a world of possibilities. In this workshop, we’ll examine what’s required to decolonize and reclaim our bodies, desires and sexualities as an act of resistance that allows us to re-energize our activism and holistically heal our systems.
• Cultivating the “In Between”: Bi-Plus Inclusion on College Campuses. Contrary to popular belief, bi+ people are the largest identity group within the grander LGBTQ+ universe. This is even more true among college-aged students. This interactive workshop will provide participants an opportunity to explore effective ways of cultivating programming, resources, and advocacy for Bi+ folks in higher education.
• What in the L?!: All Things Lesbian. Join us for healthy exchange of information that will educate, empower, and uplift all participants. We hope that women from varying demographics will partake in the conversation. We will be celebrating the things that binds us together and discussing those issues that divide us in an effort to bridge the gap. All lesbian-identified persons are welcome.
• Queering the Census Today and Tomorrow. Census counts affect millions of federal dollars for vital services for our community’s health and well-being. Through counts, we build political power we can use in apportionment and redistricting processes. Come to this session to learn more about what’s happening today with the 2020 Census data, including data on same-sex couples; what new data on our communities you can expect from 2020 Census data releases; and how we can work together to improve Census and American Community Survey data on the whole of the LGBTQ community.
• Queering Immigration. This panel will focus on the experiences and efforts of queer and trans people of color who are taking action and building power. Their work centers on combatting the state-sponsored violence being perpetrated against immigrants, asylum seekers, and undocumented folks across the country, and providing support and resources to those impacted.
• Indigenous Trans Women. While Transgender women across the United States grapple for humanization from contemporary culture, Indigenous Transgender Women face the unspoken obstacles of being among missing & murdered indigenous people, forced assimilation & denied sovereign rights to their cultural value.
• Social Support & Safe Spaces: Preventing LGBTQ Youth Suicide. The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S. And we know LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their straight/cisgender peers. Learn about risk factors for LGBTQ youth suicide — and what can be done to prevent it, including how to create safe, affirming environments and how to respond to warning signs for suicide noticed in someone else.
• Fundraising on a Dime: Budget-Friendly Digital Fundraising Tools for People-Powered Movements. People-powered movements of 2020 showed us that you do not need a lot of money to start fundraising or have to rely on big-money donations and mega-donors to transform the power structures in our country and empower hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people to take action. Our online fundraising experts will show you how to build and run a flexible, inexpensive, and empowering fundraising program with digital tools that breaks down barriers and taps into the power of small-dollar donors.
• Family Acceptance Project: Helping Diverse Families to Support and Affirm Their LGBTQ Children During Covid-19 and Beyond. Family support is critical to build healthy futures for LGBTQ children and youth, especially during the covid-19 pandemic which has increased isolation, separated LGBTQ youth from supportive peers and adults outside the home and confined many with rejecting and ambivalent families.

CAUCUS SESSIONS, ROUND 2

3:00 to 4:15 pm ET / Noon to 1:15 pm PT

• Jewish Caucus
• Elder Caucus
• Lesbian Caucus
• Trans + Nonbinary Caucus
• Muslim Caucus
• PLWHA Caucus
• API Caucus
• Atheist, Agnostics, & Other Non-believers Caucus
• Bi+ Caucus #2
• Disability Caucus
• Pagan, Nature Spirituality and Radical Faerie Caucus

CLOSING PLENARY

4:45 to 6:45 PM ET / 1:45 to 3:45 PM PT

Emcee Sandra Valls, keynote by adrienne maree brown, presentation of the Leather Leadership Award, and performances by Big Freedia!