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

PART TWO

   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:

Thursday, Feb. 4 

BY: ROBYN CAROLYN MONTAGUE

Today (Thursday) started off as the previous two days: Early. After doing my daily update for the blogs I post, we went over to the Center Tower and stopped both the SAGE and the Trans Hospitality Suites, simply to 'check in' and say hi, then over the skybridge to the Conference Center. By this morning, the various organizations and groups had set up their information kiosks and offered booklets and some products for sale.

I went on in the lecture room for today's institute, that being "Trans Rights Now" where Kylar Broadus, a very well known transgender educator and attorney who is a favorite of our Community, gave the introduction. As mentioned yesterday, a who's who of nationally known transgender leaders and advocates then gave a variety of lectures regarding building strong organizations for transgender advocacy.

The lectures focused on Leadership and Organizational Development, Ally Building and Personal Ethics. A key note on the reflection of Trans Leadership, is that a study done over the past 5 years, has shown that that leadership has gone from two percent of the staff in 45 major LGBT organizations to that of five percent. In essence though, it remains seen that in those organizations, the Trans are more representative of Board members as opposed to that of being staff. One interesting aspect of the transgender advocacy is that it needs to be pointed out, that it "is more than just about bathrooms." One should understand that it is housing, employment, healthcare and many other issues that affect the Transgender Community.

After the institute, Mara Keisling and the National Center for Transgender Equality, hosted a reception in the Trans Hospitality Suite, there with a pasta dinner being provided, Mara provided a briefing on several key issues. One topic which we were instructed not to disclose details on at this time ("for family only"), provided some deep insight on a key issue to the Transgender Community and hopefully this will come out publicly in the near future with a positive end result. She also stressed participation in Washington, D.C., of NCTE's Lobby Days (and at this time, I plan to do this) and she also spoke of exciting news of the tax deduction of transitioning medical costs and a new Transportation Security Administration change in policy which will make it very friendly for the Transgender Community to fly without humiliating treatment at the security check-in stations. She also spoke very confidently of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passing yet this year, with a strong possibility of a near term U. S. House of Representatives vote. With that thought, she announced a special briefing on ENDA to be held at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow evening.

My agenda for tomorrow, will be two 'Academies' in which we will look at Trans Inclusion for LGB(T) organizations through two separate levels of courseware. This will be followed on Saturday, with a 'Train the Trainer' for Trans Inclusion into LGB(T) organizations, where I will then be able to provide such training to individuals for such organizations. Then of course afterwards, I will be attending the special briefing on ENDA.

Friday, Feb. 5

BY: A. EUGENE POTCHEN-WEBB

The Opening Plenary, last night, was as awesome as anything I can currently think of. Kate Clinton is the Emcee for the duration of the conference. She was incredibly funny! My favorite of her Bush-bashing jokes was the one when she said Bush had disappeared, but was reported to be in a "witless protection program".

SAGE Executive Director, Michael Adams, gave the SAGE Advocacy Award for Excellence in Leadership on Aging Issues to Joyce Pierson, M.A., who has been an activist in California's aging services network for over 30 years.

Met a very nice lady in the Elder Hospitality Suite, a transplant from N'awlin's after Katrina, Michelle. She was one of the Volunteers in the Suite on Friday.

And PLENTY of other VERY nice folks in the Elder Hospitality Suite as well.....

Attended a workshop on the Older Americans Act, and learned a great deal from Karen Taylor, Laurie Young, and Joyce Pierson. The Act was enacted in 1965, and in part, says that older Americans can not be denied access to services based on their ability to pay. I came away from this one with a plan to reach-out and find those isolated elders in the LGBT community.

Attended a workshop on Trailblazing for Transgender Health. Learned about how to approach mainstream healthcare providers, and have the dialogue about providing care for trans identified folks. I came away from this one with the ammunition I need to advocate for adequate healthcare for ALL LGBT folks, but in particular, trans folks. (one of the presenters here was from the Transgender Law Center)

Went to the Plenary session this afternoon, and heard Kate Clinton, along with more Bush-bashing hilarity, go off about Rick Warren (a Christian writer), the "P" is silent she said....I almost fell off my chair...

Rea Carey, the Executive Director of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in her "State of the Movement" address, reminded us that while some strides have been made, in the short time of the Obama administration, there is still much work to be done.

BY: ROBYN CAROLYN MONTAGUE

Friday, was no different than any other. There is a lot of work for us, a lot of key advocates and activists sharing their time to lecture us in that work. The day started off with two back to back sessions of "Trans Inclusion In LGB(t) Organizations, the first the basics and the second an advanced course. Based on the textbook for LGB(t) organizations wishing to strengthen their inclusion of Transgender individuals joint-written by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), "opening the door - to the inclusion of transgender people" (yes, that's right, no caps in the title) is the primer to making LGBT Organizations fully Transgender-inclusive. This book goes to great length in detail describing to 'opening that door.'

The Academy Workshop included both cisgender and transgender individuals, with Lisa Mottet (NGLTF) and Justin Tanis (NCTE) leading the workshop through the Nine Keys of Transgender Inclusion. Discussion went through the aspects of various organizations and their levels of inclusion and were discussed in separate workgroups and then findings presented to all. Scenarios with role-model play also provided a means to project the feelings of the level of inclusion. From these studies, one could feel how one that is Transgender might feel in a given situation where they might feel not included or otherwise unwanted, an organization would see how their thoughts of fully inclusive is actually not the case (the publication is available for download from either NGLTF or NCTE).

At a luncheon in the Transgender Hospitality Suite, I met and chatted with Pauline Park, who is the Co-Founder and Chair of New York Association of Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) and talked of each other's organization's work for the Transgender Community. Ms. Park is yet another larger than life person in the struggle for Transgender Equality, attending and presenting at Creating Change. After lunch, we went upstairs and joined in a caucus represented by more than twenty-eight grass roots, state-wide and national Transgender organizations. The purpose of this particular caucus was to introduce these organizations and to brief each other on the work being done. Gunner Scott, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), led the caucus in which a strong interactive network to exchange information and ideas was presented. TransHaven Missouri along with several others, was invited to participate in this informal network and we look forward to utilizing this network in our advocacy work.

The day ended out with an briefing on the status of ENDA. This meeting was presented by NGLTF, NCTE, Transgender Law Center (TLC) and several other organizations. In this briefing we were told to expect to hear that the U.S. House of Representatives were nearing a position in which to vote on this legislation. Mara Keisling, Executive Director of NCTE, expressed a keen and sincere confidence that this needed employment rights legislation will be passed and signed into law. She stated that currently that enough votes in the House were there to pass muster there, and though perhaps not with such a fervor, the Senate would be voting for the legislation as well. These organizations, however, that the Community still needs to keep the pressure on in the form of phone calls to one's legislators in order to keep this advantage.

A late evening of work, perhaps best rewarded with some decadent desserts from the hotel's restaurant leads into the final day of workshops. Tomorrow the schedule will be some coursework on 'Training the Trainer - For Transgender Inclusion,' studies in Trans Rights with regard to Healthcare, Prisions and ID Documents, a briefing on the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, and a caucus on Working In Coalitions.

Saturday was the closing day of courses from me, preparation of the return trip home is in progress. The first workshop dealt with Trans Rights issues and advocacy's with regard to incarceration in the Correction Systems, Health Care and ID Documents. These issues are among the most common that Transgender individuals face and are generally more of a constraint or otherwise more deeply involved than that of the overall LGBT Community. Lambda Legal, National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), DC Trans Coaltion, Transgender Law Center (TLC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) all presented material and provided small group training. Gunner Scott (MTPC) and Lisa Mottet (NGLTF) are shown in the photograph.

The second session of the day, was the presentation of the (preliminary) National Transgender Discrimination Survey, a joint survey of NGLTF and NCTE. While the data is remarkable and in many cases validates numbers of issues published from unverified sources, not all the numbers have been looked at and analyzed from the poll. TransHaven will keep in touch with these organizations and present this when we are able to report on these findings. What we can say, the numbers are pretty much what we as the Transgender Community thought they would be, and some numbers quite startling. In an poll inclusive of the 'Transgender Umbrella,' with 6,450 transgender people responding, the finds show 26% of those polled lost their jobs because they are Transgender. In a percentage best described as that of all polled, 97% reported mistreatment of one form or another at their place of employment. In other aspects of discrimination, the findings found double the rate of unemployment, near universal harassment on the job, significant loss of jobs and careers, high rates of poverty and significant housing instability. We can say from the information provided, that this survey is fully validated and does accuately represent metrics of discrimination towards the Transgender Community in the United States.

The third session ( a double session) of the day was that of 'Training the Trainer For Transgender Inclusion in LBG(t) organizations, where techniques were described and 'role-played,' addressing the various issues of Transgender Inclusion. With this training, we can go to organizations and train their Outreach personnel in developing 'Truly Fully' Transgender inclusion. We intend to offer this opportunity to the various LGB(t) organizations in Missouri and surrounding areas.

And yes, another visit to the Transgender Hospitality Suite, late this afternoon. Some thought provoking discussions yet again on the work of different organizations and even an intriguing conversation with two bloggers who comment on the Transgender Community. This evening we will be packing and setting up for an early morning check-out from the hotel, and on our way home. The Conference was awesome, entertaining and yes, informational. See you soon, Robyn Carolyn Montague will be 'prowling' back into town, tomorrow.

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

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