Temple University Beasley School of Law will host the LGBT Youth Conference next week — the first of its kind at the university. The conference, which runs from 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at Klein Hall, 1719 N. Broad St., will focus on the issues surrounding LGBT youth and explore topics such as homelessness, out-of-home placements, safe-school initiatives, rejecting families, the school-to-prison pipeline and best practices for attorneys, judges and juvenile-justice personnel. The conference is open to the public and geared towards lawyers, advocates, policymakers, social workers, educators and those interested in LGBT youth work. Martha Albertson Fineman, director of the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative, will serve as keynote speaker. Conference organizer and Temple Law professor Nancy J. Knauer said attendees can benefit from hearing about Fineman’s vulnerability theory and how she applies it to LGBT youth. “We are thrilled to have her as the keynote speaker,” Knauer said. “Her vulnerability theory is revolutionizing the way we think of ourselves and our relationship to society and law.” Knauer said plans for the conference started a year ago, with organizers hoping to shed light on an often-underserved segment of the LGBT community. “With all the conversations about marriage equality and the advancements in recent years, it was important to not forget and double our efforts to reach out to the most vulnerable of the LGBT community,” she said. Family Acceptance Project director Caitlin Ryan will host a showing of the project’s documentary, “Families Are Forever,” which tells the story of a Mormon family whose son came out as gay and documents the family’s process of acceptance. “What we find is that LGBTQ youth who come from rejecting families have high-risk factors for all manners of bad things, and what [Ryan] has found in her research is reducing rejecting behavior slightly makes high-risk behavior drop dramatically,” Knauer said. “We want to make sure that folks who will represent LGBT youth know about this.” Tickets for the conference are $150 for attorneys, $50 for non-attorneys, $40 for non-Temple Law students and free for Temple Law students (lunch not included), faculty and staff. Seven CLE credits, including one ethics CLE credit, will be available. For more information on the conference, visit www7.law.temple.edu/events/lgbt-youth.
Newsletter Sign-up