Subject: Largest LGBT Activist Conference Set for the Fall
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 11:21:27 -0400

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PRESS RELEASE
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
2320 17th St. NW; Washington, DC 20009
Contact:  Sue Hyde (617) 492-6393
[email-masked]       or
Elise Jimenez (202) 332-6483 ext. 3305
Pager (800) 757-6476
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 BARNEY FRANK TO ANALYZE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
AT NINTH ANNUAL CREATING CHANGE CONFERENCE

WRITER/ARTIST/ACTIVIST JUNE JORDAN TO DELIVER
FIRST ANNUAL VITO RUSSO LECTURE ON ART & POLITICS

Washington, D.C. --  July 9, 1996 -- Barney Frank, the outspoken Democratic
Congressman from Massachusetts, will kick off the ninth annual Creating
Change Conference, regaling attendees with his views of the 1996 Presidential
election. Frank's keynote address opens the conference on Thursday evening,
November 7, 1996. 

 The pre-eminent national gathering of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender
activists returns this year to its birthplace of Washington, DC.
Pre-conference institutes and trainings will be held November 6 and 7, with
the core conference running November 7 through 10. All events during this
ninth annual national gathering sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force (NGLTF) will be held at the Radisson Plaza Hotel at Mark Center in
Alexandria, Virginia.

 This year's conference features the First Annual Vito Russo Memorial Lecture
on Art & Politics, to be delivered Friday, November 8  by author and poet
June Jordan. Jordan is a prolific writer and social critic whose greatest
strength is her ability to live what she believes.  The late Vito Russo, a
1989 Creating Change keynote speaker, wrote the critically acclaimed study of
cinema The Celluloid Closet.

 Veteran organizer Carmen Vasquez, currently the director of public policy at
the New York City Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, will deliver a
keynote address on Saturday, Nov. 9.  Vasquez, a self-described Butch-Puerto
Rican-Socialist, is co-director of Promote the Vote, a national voter
registration and mobilization project of the country's 65 community centers.

 Five all-day pre-conference institutes are scheduled prior to the core
workshops and roundtables of the conference.  On Wednesday, November 6, two
 institutes will run simultaneously: the annual "People of Color Organizing
Institute," with organizers/facilitators Don Kao, Cathy Cohen, Graciela
Sanchez, Michael Marinez, and Katherine Acey; and "Race Is The Issue: An
Institute for White Activists," with lead organizer Suzanne Pharr of the
Arkansas Women's Project, assisted by a team including Amber Hollibaugh, Marj
Plumb, Laura Flanders, Mab Segrest and Jamie Grant.

 On Thursday, November 7, the three simultaneous institutes scheduled are
"Finding Common Ground: Building Alliances Across Race, Class & Gender
Lines," organized and facilitated by Pam McMichael and Pat Hussain,
co-directors of Southerners on New Ground; "Youth Organizing Institute,"
coordinated by youth organizers from the New York City Lesbian and Gay
Community Services Center; and "Community Centers: Laying the Foundations to
Create Change," convened by leaders from the country's gay and lesbian
community centers.

 Two special all-day tutorials are offered: Fundraising Training with Kim
Klein on Thursday, November 7 and Board/Leadership Development with Karl
Mathiasen on Friday, November 8. Participants at these special trainings are
expected to attend them for the entire day. Registration for these trainings
is not included in the conference registration fee; a separate fee will be
charged and lunch is included.

 A Strategy Meeting for Statewide Organizations will be held on Thursday,
November 7. This day-long gathering is by, for, and about the people and
groups that toil in the state legislatures, building networks across their
state, county by county and town by town. This meeting is organized and
facilitated by Helen Gonzales of NGLTF, Paula Ettelbrick of the Empire State
Pride Agenda, and Urvashi Vaid, attorney and community organizer.

 A panel of inside-the-Beltway pros will lead off the morning on Friday,
November 8 with a pithy discussion of The Next Presidential Administration.
The current discussions of same-gender marriage, the status of ENDA and
federal hate crimes law and the outcome of Colorado's Amendment 2 provide
much grist for this mill. This panel discussion is organized and facilitated
by writer and activist Torie Osborn.

 Conferencegoers can choose from dozens and dozens of workshops, panels,
caucuses, meetings and small group sessions about activists' work in their
communities. Subject matter includes: freedom to marry, media, sex and gender
identity, organizational development, anti-violence, workplace organizing,
speakers bureaus, leadership skills, sodomy laws, and current hot topics and
trends in the movement. Digital Queers returns for the fourth year with a
full schedule of computer, on-line, and web trainings for everyone, from the
weak-fingered rookies to the veteran cyberjocks.

 For more information or to receive a Creating Change 1996 brochure and
registration brochure, call 202/332-6483, ext. 3329. It is also available on
the world wide web at http://www.ngltf.org/cc96.

 To reserve a room at the Radisson Mark Center Hotel, call 703/854-1010;
mention the NGLTF Creating Change conference to get the special conference
room rate of $89/night.
  
Creating Change is a registered trademark of the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force. NGLTF  is a progressive organization that has supported
grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since 1973. Since
its inception, NGLTF has been at the forefront of virtually every major
initiative for lesbian and gay rights. In all its efforts, NGLTF helps to
strengthen the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement at the state
level while connecting these activities to a national vision for change. 

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