Heading to the Creating Change conference in Denver this weekend? Or maybe you are already there. In any case, GLAAD staff are hopping on a Southwest Airlines flight this week to share the best practices from our work, and meet with LGBT advocates from across the country. Stop by and say hi. Here are some places you can find us:
Thursday – Day Long Institutes
Online Focus: Digital Strategy Training Institute
Catch Director of Programs Ross Murray and Senior Strategist Dani Heffernan at the sixth annual Digital Strategy Training Institute. You will spend a day hearing from experts about the latest digital tools and online advocacy strategies that you can incorporate into your work, how to find social media tools that are appropriate for your budget, how to stay on top of the latest new media trends, and how to successfully implement them at your organization. Sponsored by GLAAD, Purpose, and UltraViolet.
Unión Equals Fuerza: Latino Institute
Director of Spanish Language & Latino Media Monica Trasandes and Spanish Language and Latino Media Strategist Janet Quezada at the Unión Equals Fuerza: Latino Institute, a full-day gathering that addresses LGBT issues affecting Latina/o communities. Join diverse groups of LGBT Latinos/as and allies from across the country to foster supportive relationships and build one another's capacity to advance LGBT Latina/o activism. Unión=Fuerza is the only annual national LGBT Latina/o day-long training organized by and for LGBT Latinas/os in a bilingual and culturally competent space. The space allows for a Latina/o social and cultural celebration of our rich identities in queer inclusive spaces. This is the third annual Latino Institute, which brought together over 250 LGBT Latinas/os and allies from 20 states and 40 Latino and LGBT inclusive organizations in 2014.
Transgender Self-Empowerment: Building Communities for Resilience, Safety, Health, and Life
In this Day Long Institute, Tiq Milan, consultant to GLAAD's Transgender Program, will join others in exploring community building across race, class, and cultural barriers to assist both individuals and the transgender community at large in being resilient in the face of systematic oppressions and violence. Anti-transgender bias puts transgender people at great risk in society and places transgender people's health and economic, emotional, and physical well-being at risk, while significantly lowering life expectancy. The pervasive negative impacts of this anti-transgender bias coupled with structural racism have been especially devastating for transgender people of color and has caused transgender woman of color, particularly black transwomen, to be murdered on our streets with seeming impunity. We will unpack different community building models traditionally used outside the LGBT community and others. The hope and intent is to be practical as well as about sharing analysis and ideas so that there are "take aways" for everyone to improve community building.
Friday
Tiq Milan is leading a workshop, "Over the Tipping Point: Trans stories in the media." The workshop examines best strategies for moving the conversation forward about transgender inclusion and equality using media as a primary means of storytelling and advocacy. It's about moving the discourse from a "Trans 101" to a "201" smoothly without alienating that moveable we're trying to reach. It will also address the importance of having this discourse within the transgender community as well and creating space for transgender leadership.
Saturday
Ross Murray is leading a workshop, "LGBT Faith Voices in the Media – YOURS." Despite growing acceptance of LGBT people across religions, most religious messages in mainstream media are anti-LGBT. We will practice effective messages and techniques to share messages of equality in faithful, theological, and scriptural terms.
Later that same day, Ross Murray is going to present on a panel addressing "The Psychology of Debunking Anti-LGBT Myths." He will be joined by Danielle Moodie-Mills and Brynn Tannehill to talk about ways in which we address untruths, half-truths, and outright lies about LGBT people. Media Matters For America is hosting the panel, and here's how they describe the workshop: Anti-discrimination laws infringe on religious liberty. Trans-inclusive restrooms result in sexual assault. Opposing homophobia is an affront to the First Amendment. Sound familiar? From the team that brought down Glenn Beck and takes on the right-wing noise machine led by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh comes a workshop to examine the psychology behind effectively combating myths about the fight for LGBT equality. Participants will learn about the science and best practices for debunking anti-LGBT misinformation.
In addition to all these opportunities, you'll see several GLAAD staff walking around, meeting with people. Come up and say hi. Ask what we are working on right now, and let us know what your mission is. We are excited to connect with the movers and shakers of the LGBT movement.
See you in Denver!