Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:49:25 -0600 From: Bob Summersgill Subject: Gays and Lesbians to hold Third Annual Statewide Conference in Las Cruces Press Release From the Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights in New Mexico Contact: Bob Summersgill 277-9607 Martha Trolin 232-3760 Gays and Lesbians to hold Third Annual Statewide Conference in Las Cruces The Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights in New Mexico will be bringing 200 Gay community leaders from all over the state to Las Cruces for its third annual Summit. The Summit '97, themed "CommUnity IN DIVERSITY" will be held September 26-28 at the Las Cruces Hilton. "Gays and Lesbians are perhaps the most diverse community on Earth -- hailing from each gender, ethnic, racial economic and religious group" said conference organizer Martha Trolin. "Yet in New Mexico (as in most states) out official and unofficial organizations often do not reflect the diversity of the communities in which we live." Along with its ongoing commitment to strengthening New Mexico's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender communities through networking and organizational skills-building, Summit '97 is designed to investigate, highlight, and celebrate our many diversities as a community. Workshops have been planned to build strategies for bringing our diverse religious, ethnic, cultural and economic origins into our Gay community; to help us work together as Gay men, Lesbians, and gender variants; and to build strategies for bringing our gayness home to our diverse communities of origin. Summit '97 will provide a pre-conference Skills Building Training Institute, national and local keynote speakers a theater presentation, other live entertainment, regional networking, organizing around statewide issues, meals and lots of fun. Helen Gonzales, the Public Policy Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, will deliver the keynote address on Friday night. Saturday night's dinner will include a performance presentation by Joana "Juba-Omeste" Clayton, the Director of the University of New Mexico's Women's Center, titled "Closets Ain't Nothin' But a Dark & Private Place For ... ?" These Summits bring the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender communities and its allies together, provide training, build skills, network talents, organize around statewide issues, support community activism and challenge all who participate to examine and overcome roadblocks faced along the way. Summits help end isolation, build support, create personal vision and work toward meaningful social and political change in our communities and in our state. In September, 1994, the Coalition hosted its first conference in Albuquerque. The "Fight the Right" conference was attended by 122 people and was facilitated by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's team of Robert Bray and Scott Nakagawa. In 1995 the first official Summit took place in Truth or Consequences. Last year, Summit '96 -- Tools for Change, took place in Los Alamos. Trolin said, "New Mexico is one of the very few states to gather for an annual conference to promote equal rights for Gay Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people. We are proud of this distinction." Scholarships are available for the Summit and cover registration, hotel, and transportation for those unable to afford the full cost of the conference. Conference registration forms and scholarship information is available Sisters' and Brothers' Bookstore, Full Circle Books, and the Common Bond Community Center, or by writing to the Coalition attention Summit Registration, PO Box 80751, Albuquerque, NM 87198.