The looming presidential inauguration is expected to play a significant role at the largest annual gathering of LGBT-rights activists.
More than 3,500 people are anticipated to participate in National LGBTQ Task Force’s 29th Creating Change Conference Jan. 18-22 at Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Hundreds of workshops, panel discussions and comprehensive, interactive sessions will address the ongoing evolution of LGBT rights.
Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president in the midst of the conference, a development that conference director Sue Hyde said will factor heavily into the discussion.
“I expect a lot of the conversations, especially the strategy conversations, will be focused on the new context that we are entering into,” Hyde said. “I think it will come up in almost every session, one way or another.”
That theme will kick off with opening-plenary speaker, the Rev. Dr. William Barber, whose Thursday-night address is titled “The Prophetic Post-Election Call to Action.” Barber, who delivered a fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this past summer, is a minster in North Carolina, whose anti-LGBT-rights ordinance he vigorously campaigned against.
Friday’s plenary features a conversation with entertainer Todrick Hall, Black AIDS Institute CEO Phill Wilson, George Washington University’s Dr. Richard Elion and blogger Ken Williams on the impact of HIV/AIDS on communities of color. A concurrent plenary features remarks by Task Force staff on the state of the LGBT movement. Instead of a sit-down plenary Saturday, organizers are encouraging participants to join the official Creating Change contingent at the Women’s March on Philadelphia to “fight back against Trumpism.” The closing plenary will include brunch with “Glee” star Alex Newell and the presentation of a series of awards.
The first half of the conference will be dedicated to 21 day-long “institutes,” giving attendees the chance to delve deeply into issues.
Wednesday features the Racial Justice Institute, with group discussion followed by separate sessions for new and return people of color and white participants. Hyde expects up to 900 to participate.
Thursday’s institutes feature conversations on student resources, Asian-American and Pacific-Islander and Latinx activism, faith communities, HIV/AIDS, aging and more.
Attendees can choose from hundreds of workshop sessions the rest of the conference.
Hyde said the conference programming closely matches the themes Task Force aims to address in its work.
“When we sent out our requests for proposals, we intentionally and specifically used our own policy priorities as a kind of template for the topic areas we wanted to highlight: criminal justice, disability justice, economic justice, gender justice inclusive of transgender people, immigration justice, faith organizing, racial justice, religious-exemption law and reproductive justice,” Hyde said.
Last year’s event was marred by controversy over an American-Israeli reception; after pressure, organizers cancelled and then restored the event, which was the target of a protest to which the Chicago Police Department responded.
Hyde said organizers published a “Protest Policy” in this year’s program book.
“What we’re asking people to do if they are planning some kind of protest is that they let us know,” she said. “Part of the issues that arose last year was that, although we knew it was happening, we didn’t really quite know who the lead contact was. So we’re asking folks to designate a contact person for any protest.”
Hyde said organizers are also asking any potential protest to utilize a “moving” format “so that they’re proceeding in walking formation so that we avoid violations of fire-code regulations, which was a big issue in Chicago and caused hotel security to summon the police because they were concerned about fire codes being violated.”
Overall, Hyde said she’s looking forward to a productive and engaging conference, which she said the Philadelphia Host Committee played a large part in fostering.
“We’ve had a great relationship with the Host Committee in Philadelphia and I want to give a shout to all the work they’ve done, organizing community housing, recruiting volunteers, getting the word out around Philadelphia,” Hyde said. “They’ve done a great job.”
For more information, visit www.creatingchange.org.