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.
