To Conference Schedule
Becoming a Better LGBT Activist
In this workshop, participants will hear an overview of LGBT organizing today and learn strategies for influencing decision-makers, lobbying elected officials, and working with the press. Participants will also find out about hot topics facing the LGBT community (Employment Non-Discrimination Act, gay marriage and pressing state issues and initiatives), and learn how they can get involved in making a difference on issues they care about. Participants will learn innovative and comprehensive strategies for generating positive change.
Facilitator: Frank Butler, National Coming Out Coordinator of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The HRC has provided training and expertise to hundreds of community leaders working in local and national organizations in the areas of lobbying, coalition building, media relations and grassroots organizing.
The Closet Door: Helping Those Behind the Door
This program is designed to educate gay/lesbian/bisexual youth/students in their rich history, culture, and other facets of homosexual life and will also discuss the issues of life in a heterosexually constructed world. Participants will learn how to become the part of the support network that all of us need and use.
John Renfro is a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has developed an educational program there that focuses on the history and culture of homosexuality. He has also worked on a disability awareness program intended to enlighten non-disabled youth.
Daring to be Dykes in Academia
Findings from emancipatory action research gathered from personal experiences as "out" lesbians in higher education will be presented in this multimedia presentation. The facilitators' experiences range from being undergraduate and graduate students, to teaching and working as coordinators in universities. The presentation will focus on feminist, postmodern and queer theory and methodology as these weave through the facilitators' research and experiences. Includes showing of video produced by one of the presenters, as well as handouts of "resources for daring dykes."
Facilitators: Sine Anahita, Coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Services, Iowa State University and M. Kayt Sunwood, Cybrarian, Journalism and Mass Communication Department, ISU.
Ethics in GLB Student Leadership: Balancing the Impossible
GLB student leaders face tremendous pressure from all sides, especially on smaller campuses. This workshop will explore ethical dilemmas for GLB student leaders. Issues of outing, campus politics, organizational purpose, and internal conflict will be discussed. Ideas will be proposed for effectively juggling the many problems that student leaders face.
Eldon C. Brown was a founding member and president of BGLFA at Western Illinois University. He has been involved in nearly all aspects of student leadership from academic committees to campus programming boards. He has taught a semester-long class for student leaders, and presented educational and leaderhip programs to classes, organizations, and student leaders of all backgrounds.
Female Bidentity: Women Tellin' It Like It Is
In this workshop, Janine De Manda presents a video documentary developed by Jennifer Hardacker, a graduate student filmmaker from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Female Bidentity: Women Tellin' It Like It Is intersperses clips of bisexual women discussing what it means to them to identify as bisexual and how this identity affects their lives with fun, "sing-a-long" music-videoesque clips featuring Amanda Udis-Kessler's song, The Borderline Bisexual Blues.
Janine De Manda is one of the participants in the making of Female Bidentity: Women Tellin' It Like It Is and will present it for the producer, Jennifer Hardacker. Hardacker, in addition to cinematography, has studied and presented on identity politics, such as essentialist versus constructionalist, post-structuralism and the move towards an all inclusive "Queer" politic.
From the Page to the Stage
This workshop is designed for beginning- and intermediate-level writers/performers to gain concrete tools to claim writer/performer-self, get through blocks, and explore characterization, movement, voice, and style, as well as read/perform one's own work and enjoy it. This is an excellent opportunity for performance artists, poetry slammers, and people who want to start their own performance company.
This workshop will be facilitated by C.C. Carter and Byron Stewart of A Real Read. This was first presented at the Lambda Book Report's "Beyond the Mask" Conference in Washington, DC. For more information on A Real Read look at their web site.
Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender College Conference '99
This workshop will allow schools to participate in presenting proposals
for and voting on where next year's conference will be. Schools interested
in hosting next year's conference should come prepared with a full proposal,
complete with potential keynote speakers, proposed budget, and the number
of students your school can accommodate. Each school represented at the
workshop will get only one vote. We advise against any big campaigns. However,
schools should be as creative as possible.
This session will include a very brief presentation by Joseph Tennis from
Lawrence University. Lawrence
has volunteered to host the archives for this and all other MBLGTC Conferences.
Hosting the conference has been a great learning experience for us and we wish next year's host the best of luck.
A facilitator will be appointed to ensure fairness and expediency.
Newsletters and Online Publishing for Your Organization
Newsletters are probably the most effective way to reach the diverse audience of our community. This program will walk you through the steps of producing a newsletter, from funding, advertising, and collecting articles through layout, design, and printing. The program will also touch on online publishing. Attendee will be provided with documentation and a template to start right away on their campus gay-lesbian-bisexual newsletter.
Mitch Tollerud is a recent graduate of Northern Illinois University, where he published the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Coalition's newsletter for the past three years. Mitch has presented on this topic at the previous two Midwest Conferences; his workshops were well received at those venues. He is currently involved in the production of the Diversity of Rockford newsletter and an active member of that organization.
Public Opinion and LGB People
The purpose of this workshop is to familiarize those attending the conference with the nature of public opinion toward LGBT people, toward our role in society, and toward our rights. We then will discuss the implications of these data for the strategies and tactics we adopt to achieve our rights and to improve our position in society.
Kenneth Sherrill has been an expert witness in Colorado, Cincinnati, and military discrimination cases. He was New York's first openly LGB elected official. He is a Past Chair of the American Political Science Association LGB Caucus and a member of the APSA Committee on the Status of LGBs in the profession.
Same-Sex Sexual Harassment in the University Setting
As a survivor of sexual harassment, I will speak of my personal experience, and relate it to the lack of research on same-sex sexual harassment. This program intends to provide those attending it with a good sense of what same-sex sexual harassment is and how to protect themselves against faculty, staff, and administrators who might use their sexual orientation against them.
Scott De Nardo is a senior at Indiana University studying Criminal Justice and Sociology. He has made various presentations, including one to Chicago-suburban teachers and administrators about what high schools can do to better prepare GLBT students for college. He hopes to pursue a legal degree in civil rights and labor law.
Sexuality, Spirit, and the Sacred
Through theoretical insights, practical applications, and historical perspectives, participants will take a look at spirituality as it relates to human development and healthful living. Participants will be encouraged to reflect upon and share insights from their personal spiritual journeys. The workshop will conclude with a sharing of resources addressing issues of spirituality available to college students and student service providers.
Toby Causby develops and facilitates workshops, programs, and retreats on a wide range of workplace and organizational issues including multicultural communication, group development, prejudice reduction, and personal development. Toby received his Bachelors degree in Communication and is completing a Masters degree in Multicultural Education and Organizational Change.
Shattered Stereotypes: An Introduction to the Transgendered Community
A panel will present an overview of the transgender community, discussing the perceptions (and misperceptions) of the transgender community in both the straight and GLB communities.
The panel will be led by Janice Galeckas and will include members of the Chicago Gender Society outreach committee. The Chicago Gender Society is an open transgender support group.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow. . .There is a Safe Zone
Safe Zone Programs create a visible avenue for heterosexual allies to express their support. This workshop will provide a model for developing a Safe Zone Program at any school. Effective allies need more than good intentions; they need accurate information and concrete strategies.
Margaret M. Cook has been faculty co-advisor for the NIU LGBC for three years. She serves on the NIU President's Advisory Committee on Sexual Orientation, and has developed many training programs on diversity issues. She initiated and is responsible for coordinating the NIU Safe Zone Program.
To Be or Not To Be? Students, Faculty, and "Outing" Oneself in the College Classroom
This workshop will focus on the process of deciding whether or not, and to what degree, to be "out" as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender person in the college classroom. There are many ways of "coming out" and many ways of "being out," some of which differ for students and faculty. What works? What doesn't? And why does it matter?
Melissa Herbert is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts at a small university in Minnesota. Her primary areas of research and teaching are sexuality and gender. She is currently the faculty advisor for the GLBT student group, Queers and Peers and has done many presentations that deal with sexuality and gender, especially among women in the military as well as on "being out" and has conducted projects/workshops on college campuses around GLBT issues.
A Training Method for Transgender Awareness & Sensitivity
This workshop focuses on the methods developed for transgender awareness and sensitivity training for staff and faculty at Michigan State University, using materials in a short form of a training session. Our approach is grounded in becoming aware of and sensitive to gender diversity at all levels.
Brent Bilodeau is the Assistant for LBG&T concerns in the Office of Multicultural Development at MSU, a position made full-time in the summer of 1997. Brent works with the Alliance of Lesbian, Bi, Gay, and Trans Students and the Homophobia Action Group, and does awareness and sensitivity training around campus. Lisa Lees is a queer-identified transsexual woman who has been very active in transgender concerns on the MSU campus and in the surrounding area. She has also written for regional publications, has a chapter in an upcoming book, and spoke at the University of Chicago during B-GLAD in 1997. Please see www.msu.edu/user/lees
Understanding the Needs of Families of Transgendered People
Families and friends of transgendered people often feel they have nowhere to turn for support and information. Learn about issues relevant to transfamilies and how PFLAG and other GLB groups can provide a critical service in reaching out to them.
Karen Gross is the mother of a 29-year-old transsexual son who transitioned while in law school at the age of 23. When he came out to his family, Ms. Gross found education about transgender issues was a great help. Finally she started a support group for parents. She and her husband and son have spoken at the last two PFLAG National Conventions.
Who Will Lead Us?: Taking a Look at Issues Facing Student and Faculty Leaders on Campus
This collaborative panel-style workshop consists of two parts. The first part will deal with the development and functions of an LGBT college organization. The University of Northern Iowa's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance will be used as a basis for discussion. The second part of the workshop will focus on a discussion between the panelists and the participant audience in an effort to generate and share ideas and experiences.
The University of Northern Iowa's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance consists of a diverse group of students and faculty. Student presenters include Amy Moser, William Behrends, Casie Truitt, Jason Fienhold, Cynthia Klemen, Melissa Barron, Jason Chase. Also presenting are faculty advisors Dr. Susan Hill, an Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy and Dr. Beth Kivel, Professor of Leisure Services. The LGBTA executive committee and advisors are excited to share their experiences as well as to build networks with other student leaders.