2019 Creating Change Conference

About

Welcome to the 2019 Creating Change Conference!

The National LGBTQ Task Force’s 2019 Creating Change Conference convenes in Detroit, Michigan January 23-27, 2019. We are excited to host our annual national movement gathering in the Motor City. We look forward to you joining us!

Creating Change is a space to bring our whole selves as well as our curiosity about others’ experiences and perspectives. We welcome people of diverse identities, opinions, and passions and we encourage everyone to share their own ideas and experiences and, especially, to ask questions. Our capacity to hold multiple perspectives and perhaps disagree is a valuable movement-building tool. The Task Force invites you to bring your curiosity, compassion and kindness to our conference community of activists, organizers, and advocates as we work to build the strongest possible LGBTQ and allied movement. We need each other to make progress.

Creating Change is a space that allows for expressing political differences, but we ask that this be done with respect for each other. This may be difficult at times, but our challenge is to stay open and not shut down or silence others. We choose to honor everyone’s dignity and humanity celebrating their right to be who they are – to be whole. We challenge ourselves to recognize and disrupt power dynamics that have perpetually harmed people, particularly Black and brown people, for generations. All of us are invited to challenge our assumptions about each other and our complex identities.

Creating Change brings together a diverse group of people that reaches far and wide into our communities. While embracing our full selves can be liberating, it can feel overwhelming at times and we need to make sure to take care of ourselves. The Task Force and Creating Change staff have created spaces to support you emotionally, creatively, and spiritually at the Conference. Please visit the Art Studio Space for some creative outlet and the Wellness Hub if you need to step out of the energy of the Conference. The Wellness Hub is a place where all attendees are supported in whatever self-directed practices that promote the cultivation of their wellness during the conference. The Wellness Hub Staff and Volunteers understand that social justice settings and work can be full of distress, overwhelm and may be challenging to navigate. A Spiritual Care team will also be available in the Wellness Hub. We hope you take advantage of this space and its respite.

We look forward to being with you in Detroit!

The National LGBTQ Task Force presents the country’s foremost organizing and training conference, and it’s more important now than ever. As the current administration continues its assault on our beloved LGBTQ communities. Creating Change is the space for us to learn, connect, and persist in our fight for full freedom, justice and equality for LGBTQ people.

Please join us and register today: Early Bird, Student/Limited Income, and Youth/Senior registrations are all available now.

If you wish to apply for an Eric Rofes Scholarship, do not complete registration at this time. Applications are due Monday, November 26, 2018. You will be notified by Monday, December 10, 2018.  If you are awarded a scholarship, you will receive a separate registration link at that time. If you are not awarded a scholarship, you will be invited to apply at a discounted rate. The Eric Rofes Memorial Scholarship Fund honors the life and work of gay activist and leader Eric Rofes, who died in 2006.