Press

The shores of San Diego beckon thousands of activists from all over the nation as the 10th annual Creating Change Conference approaches. Creating Change, sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is the national conference for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement. This year's event will be held November 12-16 and will feature over 120 workshops and small group networking sessions designed to enhance the confidence and skills of activists and organizers who work at the local and state level. The Conference is funded in part by a grant from the Gill Foundation.

Conference keynote speakers are Sheila James Kuehl, the first woman and the first lesbian to be named Speaker Pro Tem of the California Assembly; Martin Ornelas-Quintero, Executive Director of the National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO); Roland Sintos Coloma, a former NGLTF Youth Institute graduate and a Filipino bisexual public school teacher; and Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina and the forthcoming Cavedweller. She will deliver the Second Annual Vito Russo Lecture on Art and Politics. A special guest at this year's conference is Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), Appropriations Chair of the California State Assembly. Pre-conference Institutes to be held include People of Color Organizing, Race Is the Issue, Youth Organizing, Media Skills and Leaders are Made, Not Born.

Workshop topics for 1997 include sodomy laws, marriage, fundraising, people of faith, gender identity, youth organizing, anti-violence, public speaking, workplace organizing, campus organizing and media advocacy. There will also be roundtable discussions with movement leaders on hot topics and trends.

"Creating Change has been the political hothouse of our movement for the past ten years," said Kerry Lobel, NGLTF executive director. "It has been the incubator of countless projects, campaigns, strategies and initiatives that help to bring our movement into the 21st century." For more information about Creating Change visit the NGLTF website at http://www.ngltf.org/cc97, or call 202-332-6483 ext. 3329. The deadline for earlybird registration is September 1, 1997.

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The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and by building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.