Workshops at the Summit
The focus of the 2011 National LGBT People of Color Health Summit is Living at the Intersections. As a result of the complex interplay among the intersections of different identities and communities of LGBT People of Color, particular attention and respect must be paid to the multiplicities that exist in people’s lives; segmenting ourselves for the comfort of others is unacceptable. (Intersections Consulting)
The choice of Living at the Intersections as a focus for our next Summit is based on the understanding that a twenty first century leadership in our many movements must insist on a liberation framework, a human rights framework, an intersectional politics, in the lived world, not as an academic trope. It can no longer be that racism is what Black people deal with or immigration what Latinos deal with or sex what queers deal with or gender identity what trans people deal with.
It can no longer be that people with disabilities are the only ones fighting to create safe spaces for differently abled bodies. It can no longer be that the professionalized women’s, gay, immigration and civil rights movements stay in their damn silos. Poverty, violence, stigma, racism and hatred are the shared experience of millions of people thrown to the margins not just by the rich, white, heterosexual elite, but by some of our own LGBT people.
The leadership we must develop, support and embrace is one that understands the liberated body has to live through many identities and in many movements. The liberated body is free. It is not raped by poverty or racism. It is not denuded, violated or disparaged by bigots. It is not isolated or hidden away from public life because it is old or disabled. It is not denied the right to reproduce or not reproduce. It is not denied the right to change itself through medical intervention or physical presentation. The liberated body is strong. It is proud. It is Feminist. It is our hope that the content and experience of this summit will reflect this vision and deeper our understanding of the work we need to do.
The Health Summit consists of three tracks:
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Education and Capacity Building
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Advocacy and Public Policy
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Wellness and Treatment
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Program Guide for Unity Through Diversity!
The Power of Transformation – Identifying & Overcoming the Effects of Vicarious Trauma
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM
Room: Albany Room
Presenter: DeShannon Bowens, MS, ILERA Counseling & Education Services
Workshop Description: The Power of Transformation helps advocates, social workers, counselors, and various service providers become aware of how they have been affected by working with traumatized clients due to the heartfelt connection established in the nature of service. For LGBTQ POC and those who work within LGBTQ communities, it is important to discover how the nature of empowering people who have experienced trauma can have an impact on your life. This workshop utilizes interactive exercises and mediation as a means of introducing wellness & self-care techniques.
In Their Shoes – Faith and LGBT Youth and Young Adults of African Ancestry
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM
Room: Colonie Room
Presenters: Reverend Gale Jones; Reverend Valerie Holly
Workshop Description: LGBT identity for youth/young adults often conflicts with spiritual/religious tradition, which can be used to oppress, demean, or justify a parent’s right to discard them. The resulting impact is disproportionately high rates of homelessness, substance abuse, sexual risk-taking, and vulnerability of HIV, pregnancy, and sexual violence. This workshop will examine and demystify sacred texts that are used to hurt and oppress; identify the spiritual needs of youth and young adults; and provide tools to empower youth and offer ways to make spaces open for youth to intersect LGBT identity with their spirituality/religion.
Adolescent/GLBTQ Healthcare: Crossroad and Consequences
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM
Room: State Room
Presenter: Daniel Garza, MD, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
Workshop Description: Few populations are as acutely aware of “Living at the Intersections” than LGBTQ adolescents and young adults. Their self-actualization as LGBT individuals occurs in the context of multi-dimensional changes in their physical, emotional and psychological selves. The HOTT program, a large and specialized program designed to meet the primary care and mental health care needs of this group, also witnesses their struggles with issues such as housing, education, and relationships. Case examples will illustrate potential conflicts, and potential resolutions will be explored.
Why You Should ASSUME When Providing Services
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM
Room: Salon A
Presenters: Rick Thurmond, Gay Men of African Descent, Inc.; Chris Johnson, MSW, Gay Men of African Descent, Inc.
Workshop Description: This capacity building workshop addresses the design, development, and delivery of transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary practices for client-centered interventions, with a specific focus on integration preparedness and assessments. By the end of the presentation, program participants will be able to implement an Illness Management and Recovery Model referred to as ASSUME: We Assess, Set and Settling of misuse and abuse to Understand the Meaning and Motivation of behavior, then help to Empower/Educate the clients.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Family Diversity: The Intersection of Racial and Queer Identities
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM
Room: Salon C
Presenters: Claudia E. Stallman, MA, Lesbian and Gay Family Building Project; Arlene Istar Lev, LCSW-R, CASAC, Choices Counseling and Consulting; Nadya Lawson, Holding Our Own: Women’s Foundation; Keith Dickerson
Workshop Description: Identity issues having to do with gender, sexual orientation and adoptee status emerge and re-emerge as children go through developmental stages and adult relationships evolve. Race and ethnic identity add especially complex layers to LGBTQ family life. Adoption in the US increasingly crosses racial and ethnic lines, and LGBTQ adoptions are a part of that trend. This workshop addresses the challenges and insights of LGBTQ families navigating the diverse identities of our members and changing the world in the process.
Working with POC LGBTQ Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM
Room: Salon B
Presenters: Ursula Campos-Gatjens, New York City Anti-Violence Project; Yejin Lee, New York City Anti-Violence Project
Workshop Description: In order to provide sustainable, culturally competent services to LGBTQ POC who have experienced intimate partner and sexual violence, an analysis of the intersection of identity and oppression is essential. This workshop will focus on how service providers, advocates and organizers can develop a deeper understanding of the impact institutional and individual power has when working with oppressed communities. Workshop participants will come together to deepen the dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, as they intersect with cultural identity including race.
Healthy Sexuality Panel
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Room: Empire Room
Facilitator: Dr. Robert Miller, Jr., Ph.D, SUNY Albany
Panelists: Brandon Lacy Campos, activist and writer, Development Director, Queers for Economic Justice; Rev. Valerie Holly, Unity Fellowship Church; Carmen Vazquez, AIDS Institute, NYDOH
Panel Description: This panel describes sexuality and associated behaviors from a sex-positive, affirming perspective. The goal of the discussion is to explore sexualities, behaviors and ideas about sex specifically targeted to LGBT People of Color and to begin a conversation that helps the audience and panelists frame an understanding of healthy sexuality. The conversation is designed for maximum audience participation and will be highly interactive.
Coming Home: The Long Road Back to God
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: Colonie Room
Presenter: Melanie Funchess, Mental Health Association, Rochester, NY
Workshop Description: Utilizing a discussion format, participants will describe their challenges adhering to biblical interpretations within their respective faith traditions, share their experiences seeking welcoming houses of worship, and explore ways to achieve spiritual well-being while affirming their identities.
Hush Hush – Breaking the Silence on Sexuality and Sexual Abuse
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: Albany Room
Presenter: DeShannon Bowens, MS, ILERA Counseling & Education Services
Workshop Description: Hush Hush examines where some of our sexuality thoughts and beliefs can originate and how our programming can impact our expression of sexuality. This workshop looks at the prevalence of child sexual abuse and how our limited understanding and repression of sexuality often supports a culture that seldom breaks the silence surrounding child sexual abuse within families. Statistics, educational handouts, narratives from the book Hush Hush will be shared, as well as viewing an excerpt of a documentary film.
Examining Intersectionality and Discrimination of Health Care for LGBT POC
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: Salon B
Presenters: Zahara Raine, Lambda Legal; Beverly Tillery, Lambda Legal
Workshop Description: Using key findings from Lambda Legal’s Health Care Fairness Survey, the workshop will review results of unprecedented research on health care disparities and discrimination faced by LGBT POC and people living with HIV. By providing a powerful snapshot of the experiences of a diverse cross section of members of the LGBT and HIV communities, this workshop will also identify key recommendations for health care institutions, federal, state and local governments, and individuals to act upon including comprehensive cultural competency, inclusive policies, and training for medical personnel and stronger laws.
Youth: At-Promise or At-Risk
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: Salon A
Presenters: Jason Dotson, Gay Men of African Descent, Inc.; Vaughn E. Taylor-Akutagawa, Gay Men of African Descent, Inc.
Workshop Description: This capacity building workshop will explore principles and practices of training a cadre of youth/young adult leaders to make health promotion and risk reduction community norms. By the end of the presentation, participants will be provided with skills in positive youth development by creating a space where youth will transform into change agents ready to reduce the spread of HIV and address issues pertaining to youth.
“I want your cake and my cake too!” Resolving organizational and Individual Conflict
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: State Room
Presenter: Marjorie J. Hill, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, GMHC
Workshop Description: The possibility for conflict exists all around us. Whether political differences, contrasting styles, tension between former lovers, values or vision; organizations suffer when effective conflict resolution is not achieved. This interactive workshop will focus on identifying the underlying sources of conflict and various strategies for moving beyond it. Special emphasis will be made on the impact of racism, sexism and homophobia as these dynamics often shape and greatly influence conflicts. We will also explore the issue of self-esteem (or lack thereof) as a particularly critical variable in the interactions of LGBT people of color. The primary aim will be to examine the role of power dynamics, emotions, communication and trust on our ability to work, organize and successfully build community together.
LGBT POC Sexuality and Sexual Health Workshop
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
Room: Colonie Room
Presenters: Carmen Vazquez, AIDS Institute; Kraig Pannell, AIDS Institute
Workshop Description: The intersection of homophobia, heterosexism, and racism directly impacts the comprehensive health of LGBT POC. This workshop will consist of open and honest dialogue about the intersection of sexuality, culture, and race designed to engage participants in exploring various elements of their sexuality and sexual health, including: roles in LGBT culture, sexual relationship dynamics, and acknowledgement and recognition of the impact of myths/stereotypes on sexual health and behavior.
The Subculture of Corrections and how to combat this phenomenon so that providers can effectively work with the female prison population
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
Room: Albany Room
Presenter: Veronica (Roni) Minter, Sistas Healing Old Wounds, Inc.
Workshop Description: Sistas Healing Old Wounds, Inc. – A new innovative program created by a formerly incarcerated woman to address past and present Traumas that keep female offenders trapped in a vicious circle of incarceration, substance use and abuse and behaviors that put them at high risk for HIV/STI infections. The workshop will define how to utilize the subculture of the Pseudo Family within Female Correctional Facilities to strengthen HIV prevention work and other lifestyle work with this population.
Normalized HIV/AIDS Practice: Taking Responsibility for Settler Colonialism in Queer Health Services
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: Salon C
Presenter: Cameron Greensmith, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Workshop Description: This workshop calls for the decolonizing of HIV/AIDS health services, which takes seriously the on-going settler colonialism that infiltrates health services and continues to disavow indigenous self-determination, sovereignty and HIV/AIDS activism. Participants will receive a better sense of their own responsibility as social workers, educators, and health practitioners in eradicating racism and settler colonialism within HIV/AIDS practices and the strategies that can be adapted to ensure that white, gay men no longer become the entire focus of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Do You Have “C.L.A.S.”?
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
Room: Salon A
Presenter: Rob Curry, M.S Ed, UHPP, Dr. Annis Golden, SUNY Albany, Dr. Christine Pluviose, UHPP, Blue Carreker, UHPP
Workshop Description: For several years, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood has been working on an
NIH-funded research project with SUNY-Albany’s Center for the Elimination of Health Care Disparities in a unique academic-agency collaboration model, aimed at addressing barriers and solutions to implementing C.L.A.S. Standards (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services) to women of color living in poverty via “The Women’s Health Project” in Hudson, NY. This interactive workshop will introduce participants to the basics of C.L.A.S. Standards, as well as provide an opportunity to assess individual and programmatic cultural competency through discussion, lessons learned, resources available, and shared effective strategies used to increase cultural competency when working with underserved populations, including LGBT people of color.
Be Brown About It: Health Care Access Starts with You!
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
Room: Salon B
Presenters: shay(den) Gonzalez, Qui Alexander, and David I. Joseph; Brown Boi Project
Workshop Description: The Brown Boi Project shifts the health curriculum to speak specifically to young masculine of center womyn and gender nonconforming youth of color. The project focuses on gynecological health, linking mental health, and centralizing bodies of color that are trans and gender nonconforming. Targeting masculine of center womyn and trans people of color specifically will fill a critical gap in the burgeoning LGBT health field, producing vital data on the disproportionately concentrated negative health impacts within low-income communities and communities of color.
You Don’t Know Where You Are Going if You Don’t Know Your History: Untold History of LGBT POC and Successful Strategies for Advocacy and Shaping Policies
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
Room: Salon C
Presenters: Eduardo Morales, Ph.D., Alliant International University, AGUILAS of San Francisco
Workshop Description: This interactive workshop will review the untold history of LGBT POC and the stories surrounding key historical events critical in LGBT History. LGBT POC have stepped up to the plate and played critical roles in contributing to LGBT rights and social justice movements but their contributions have been invisible. Past and current successful strategies, as well as lessons learned for advocacy and shaping policy will be presented and discussed.
Trans Justice and Disability Justice
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
Room: State Room
Presenters: Pooja Gehi and Chase Strangio; Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Workshop Description: Many transgender people are also people who live with psychiatric and physical disabilities. Yet there is enormous controversy and differing views about whether gender identity disorder (GID) should be classified as a diagnosis in the DSM 4. Some transgender people don’t want to be considered to have a pathological diagnosis (GID). Similarly, disability rights advocates work towards ensuring that specific benefits are granted to people living with (mostly) physical disabilities (not transgender people). We embrace Industrial Complex (MIC), a disability justice model in which all bodies that are othered are not oppressed by medical establishments. Rather than competing for certain benefits, we challenge folks to consider the ways in which the medical model determines which bodies are correct and which bodies need to be ‘fixed.’ In this workshop, we will explore the ways in which the MIC works to oppress transgender people and people living with psychiatric and physical disabilities (as well as the many people who encompass both identities) in hospitals, prisons and jails, immigration detention centers and other state and federal custody units. We hope to build a conversation to move forward with a disability justice lens in all of our work.
Men of Color Affinity Group
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Room: Salon A
Group Leaders: Vaughn E. Taylor-Akutagawa and Jonathan Lang
Group description: The Men of color Affinity Group is a space for individuals who identify with each other because of similar cultural or ethnic characteristics and other life circumstances. This is a time to share and get support on commonalities, as well as differences that give us collective power to see the change we want to see for our communities. We welcome all Men of Color of Asian/Pacific Islander, Arab/Middle-Eastern, and Black/African, Native/Indigenous, and Hispanic/Latin/ Caribbean descent. Men of color also include individuals from various physical & mental abilities, gender identities & expressions, sexual orientations, political affiliations and spiritualities.
Vaughn E. Taylor-Akutagawa
Vaughn Taylor-Akutagawa is a dedicated and experienced social activist, entrepreneur and community researcher. Mr. Taylor-Akutagawa is currently working in New York City, both as the Deputy Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD), and the Chief Executive of Imhotep Solutions. GMAD is the oldest indigenous Black Gay Male serving organization in NYC. Imhotep Solutions is a burgeoning ethnocentric consultancy dedicated to making men’s health matter by focusing on the multidimensional man.
Jonathan Lang
Jonathan Lang is the Director of Governmental Projects and Community Development for the Empire State Pride Agenda and is responsible for overseeing all of the Pride Agenda’s advocacy activities with the Executive Chamber and New York State agencies, and the NYS LGBT Health and Human Services Network.
LGBT Youth/Young Adult Affinity Group
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Room: Colonie Room
Panelists: Samantha Box, Tree Alexander, Miguel Garcia, and Quan Le
Group Description: The LGBT Youth/Young Adult Affinity Group is a space for individuals who identify with each other because of similar cultural or ethnic characteristics and other life circumstances. This is a time to share and get support on commonalities, as well as differences that give us collective power to see the change we want to see for our communities. We welcome all Youth/ Young Adults of Asian/Pacific Islander, Arab/Middle-Eastern, and Black/African, Native/Indigenous, and Hispanic/ Latin/Caribbean descent. LGBT Youth/ Young adults also include individuals from various physical & mental abilities, gender identities & expressions, sexual orientations, political affiliations and spiritualities.
Miguel Garcia
Miguel Garcia is from Detroit, and currently a junior studying English and Women, Gender, & Sexuality studies at Harvard College. He is a first generation college student and the only male in his family to have graduated from high school. After college, Miguel plans to pursue a Masters of Education in Prevention Science & LGBTQ Youth Counseling, and to eventually obtain a law degree to advocate for LGBTQ communities of color. He is passionate about working with LGBTQ homeless youth and HIV education for communities of color. He is the co-founder of Harvard College GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever), a confidential support and social organization for queer students of color on campus. GLOW is the Harvard College’s first and only student organization for queer students of color. GLOW is committed to recognizing the various intersections of student identities and social justice movements. Beyond serving as a confidential support group, Harvard College GLOW works to ensure inclusiveness through advocacy and events that promote queer-cultural awareness. He co-founded the organization as a response to repeated suicide attempts by students of color on campus, and because of routine marginalization at mainstream LGBT organizations on campus.
Samantha Box
For the past five years, Samantha Box has dedicated herself to photographing homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City. Her project, “Invisible”, has been recognized by the Anthropographia Award for Photography and Human Rights, En Foco, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. The work has been published in Kicked Out (an anthology of essays by current and formerly homeless LGBTQ youth), and the online publications 100Eyes and The Raw File. “Invisible” was exhibited in 2010 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY, and in 2011 as part of the Open Society Institute’s “Moving Walls” exhibition.
Quan Le
Quan Le is from Austin, Texas and a sophomore at Harvard college. He is studying Human Evolutionary Biology and involved in public service work particularly with immigrant youth in Boston and health advocacy among elementary school children. When he first arrived at Harvard, he felt particularly misplaced between the Queer Student Alliance and different culture clubs. The lack of acceptance he felt was his initial attraction to Harvard College GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever). Being part of Glow not only instilled a sense of belonging, but a realization that GLOW welcomes others creating a lasting unity between different groups at Harvard and hopefully beyond.
Tree Alexander
Tree Alexander, HIV-positive AIDS activist , social advocate, motivational speaker, and youth advocate; “I am the change I wish to see.” Tree’s goal is to empower the youth and reduce social stigmas. Tree found out his HIV status one month after he turned 20 and HIV has changed his life completely.
Focused on health and nutrition, Tree travels the world and tells his story, letting people know that if we continue to conceal and fear this disease, we shall never overcome.
Women of Color Affinity Group
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Room: Salon B
Group Leaders: Gabby Santos and Akosua Valerie Y. Woods
Group Description: The Women of Color Affinity Group is a space for individuals who identify with each other because of similar cultural or ethnic characteristics and other life circumstances. This is a time to share and get support on commonalities, as well as differences that give us collective power to see the change we want to see for our communities. We welcome all women of Asian/Pacific
Islander, Arab/Middle-Eastern, Black/African, Native/Indigenous, and Hispanic/Latin/ Caribbean descent. Women of color also include individuals from various physical & mental abilities, gender identities & expressions, sexual orientations, political affiliations and spiritualities.
Gabby Santos
Gabby Santos is the Program Coordinator for Underserved Communities for the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Racial justice, gender identity activism and criminal justice reform are at the heart of her passion. Her 17 years of leadership include the Communities of Color Task Force and the Gender Positive Shaping Culture Club. She is also a “techie” as part of the NNEDV Safety Net Project.
Akosua Valerie Y. Woods
Akosua means “girl child born on a Sunday afternoon”. The name was given to Akosua by women elders when she visited Ghana West Africa in 1999. As a Griot, Akosua brings our history/herstory to life. Through music, drumming, and handmade crafts; she keeps our legacies alive to audiences both young and old. Akosua is a community activist; a recording clerk on the board of directors for SAGE Upstate; a facilitator for the Community Wide Dialogues on Race, Racism and Racial Healing; a volunteer with ] FACES (an AIDS education program); a workshop facilitator/presenter on many different issues; a craftswomen at Juneteenth. She is currently a Human Rights Specialist with the New York State Division of Human Rights.
Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Affinity Group
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Room: Salon C
Group Leaders: shay(den) Gonzalez and Qui Alexander
Group Description: Transgender Affinity Group is an open group to Trans Individuals and is an accepting environment for the exchange of ideas. The group provides a safe space where issues of importance to Transgender individuals can be raised in order to facilitate a dialogue that explores what it means to live at the intersections. This group is for Asian/Pacific Islander, Arab/Middle-Eastern, and Black/African, Native/ Indigenous, and Hispanic/Latin/ Caribbean descendants. Transgender/Gender Non- Conforming people of color also include individuals from various physical & mental abilities, gender identities & expressions, sexual orientations, political affiliations and spiritualities.
shay(den) Gonzalez
shay(den) graduated from Eugene Lang College with a BA in 2006. Most recently, shay(den) has worked with what was one of the only national LBTQ youth advocacy organizations (NYAC) and trained providers to work more effectively with queer and trans youth, while also providing empowerment and movement training for youth. His specialties are sexual health, social marketing, social media, and creating healthy youth/ adult partnerships. Currently, he is doing national consultant work providing capacity building assistance training for non/not-for profit organizations. You can also call him shay, which is always written in lowercase.
Qui Alexander
Qui Alexander is a black and Latino Trans man, originally from Buffalo, NY. He graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in the Growth and Structure of Cities. Now residing in Philadelphia, he currently works as Mazzoni Center’s Community Health Educator, teaching adolescents about healthy sexuality. He is very active in Philadelphia’s diverse LGBTQ communities as: a volunteer at the Attic Youth Center and co-facilitates Young, Trans and Unified, a weekly support group for trans and gender variant youth, a member of the Trans Masculine Advocacy Network for trans masculine folks of color, a member of Philly Stands Up, a collective working towards a non-punitive accountability process for perpetuators of sexual assault. Qui is an advocate and activist for trans/queer folks in the Philadelphia area and is also a proud and active member of the Brown Boi Project.