This past weekend, I was lucky to attend the virtual Creating Change Conference hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force. Drexel's Student Center for Diversity and Inclusion was funding students to attend. Sadly, I got a less fun case of strep this weekend and was only able to attend two panels, but I figured I'd compile my thoughts.
On Friday, I attended a portion of the Trans Leadership Lab. I wasn't able to attend the full panel due to sick and I also had a shift of work to do. This lab was actually about 5 hours long and comprised of many panels on a variety of topics. I was able to catch the end of the panel on safety and security.
The points I joined on were regarding the inherent risk of being trans and then the further risks of activism. It was mostly regarding social media and outting, but then also regarding people in abusive situations. The one panelist spoke about how they temporarily deactivated their social media when they were in a dangerous situation and how they primarily use Signal for communication.
Another panelist talked about police brutality and how you can't always call the police when someone is in an unsafe situation. They talked about how people of color and queer people are very often the victims of police brutality and inviting the cops into an already dangerous situation can cost people their lives. They told us about the website dontcallthepolice.com which has resources by city for various situations that don't require police intervention.
The last "question" was asking panelists to say what they want people to take away from the panel in 1 minute. Their minute takeaways, which really resonated with me were:
One thing that I really liked about the lab was they had a graphic designer, Giselle Chow, there doing visual notes on the panel. They drew amazing graphics with the key points from the panel. I need to look through my email or contact the organizers about getting those for the panels I missed.
On Saturday, I attended the Queering Academia panel, which was about being a queer person in academia.
To start the panel, all the panelists introduced themselves with their names, pronouns, their backgrounds, and where they're from. Each panelist acknowledged both the city where they were located, and also the traditional and occupied Native American land they were on. They all talked about how important it is to education to acknowledge the land we're on was stolen and the theme of learning from history to better the present was recurring through the panel. The one panelist spoke about how they work at an ivy league school that gained wealth and influence built entirely on genocide and slavery. How do you change an institution built on oppression?
Each of the panelists touched upon feelings that I've had a lot just never truly articulated before. There was about safety as a queer person in a position of power. While there are protections for queer people in the workplace against being fired regarding our identity, queer people are very aware that we can be fired for little things that wouldn't get a not queer coworker fired.
There were also great points made about how academia is classist. The resources provided by higher education as far as textbooks and materials go are most likely outdated and not inclusive. In addition to this, they talked about how professionalism tends to be classist. In order to best connect with students and put them in a place that they can learn, you have to do things in a non-traditional way that the institution doesn't always agree with. One panelist talked about using the events budget to host a food pantry for students during the pandemic. Another talked about how you have to be vulnerable and open with students to truly connect with them.
Overall, the panel really spoke to a lot of my experiences, and they left us with a quote that I'll end this post with.
"Being queer saved my life. Often we see queerness as deprivation. But when I look at my life, I saw that queerness demanded an alternative innovation from me. I had to make alternative routes, it made me curious, it made me ask this is not enough for me" - Ocean Vuong