“Bold Not Broken: Queer Resilience in the South” served as the passionate theme for this year’s Louisiana Queer Conference. Instead of focusing on any one issue, such as marriage equality, LACQ aimed to show queer rights organizations in Louisiana have been working hard on a number of issues for years — and have no intention of slowing down any time soon.
The day centered around two panels and a keynote speaker. In between, participants had the opportunity to attend a series of group sessions, with topics ranging from incorporating queerness into religion to the history of HIV and its effect on the gay community.
From the moment the conference began, the theme of resilience could be seen everywhere.
The first panel of the day, “State of The Movement,” gave people an opportunity to hear from leaders of progressive community organizations, including Equality Louisiana, Planned Parenthood, BreakOUT!, the Louisiana AIDS Advocacy Network, the INCITE! National Organizing Collective and the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative.
These groups have fought hard over the last year and have plans to fight even harder in upcoming years.
A message emerged during the panel that would persist throughout the day: The fight for marriage equality is nearly over, and now the movement has to begin looking at what the next battle will be.
The Supreme Court will decide this summer whether marriage bans invalidate the guarantee of equal protection under the law, thus making them unconstitutional. The case will be heard in April and decided on toward the end of the session.
This fight is out of the hands of LGBT community leaders and in the hands of the court.
Instead of only talking about marriage equality, an issue that has held the full attention of many queer rights groups for years, panel members and attendees introduced their plans for what they believe will be the next hurdle to overcome on the journey to total equality.
That doesn’t mean marriage equality was not discussed during the day — two of the breakout group sessions involved discussions on the legal battle happening in Louisiana because this state remains one of the few that has yet to rule on the legality of the same-sex marriage ban.
However, people seemed much more interested in the sessions that focused on improving things for queer students on college campuses. These group sessions didn’t just give listeners a chance to learn. They also allowed leaders of organizations to introduce new ideas into the movement.
One concept introduced at this conference was “mobile safe spaces,” an idea created by Joseph Coco, a speaker on the intersectionality panel, which gives people the power to become safe spaces themselves.
“A safe space is not a room with a rainbow sticker on it,” Coco told attendees. “It is something that is alive and is constantly changing in order to remain safe. You can be a safe space, and everywhere you go you can take that safety with you.”
Coco’s ideology was introduced during a panel on intersectionality, a session with the incredibly high attendance. This panel mirrored the entire conference — engaging, educational, are allowed for a dialogue and answered questions honestly and earnestly.
When someone asked about the difference between black and white female sexuality, the room let out a collective sigh, but multiple people began answering. Recommendations for movies to watch and books to read were written on the whiteboard and copied down. A second question, about how to be a white ally in an intersectional space, was met with one participant simply saying “Listen to us.”
The conference also served as a launching pad for the Louisiana Queer Student Leaders Network, a group that will allow students who lead equality groups at colleges across the state to work together and learn from one another. The members of this newly formed coalition sat on the second conference-wide panel of the day and immediately addressed the climate of various campuses.
This panel of students represented every aspect of the racial, sexual and gender spectrum and spoke openly and passionately about the importance of intersectionality, safe spaces, trans-inclusion and working together.
These leaders supported one another during the discussion, reinforcing each other’s views. Support systems like this are important for the queer community. With all of these students collaborating, sharing strategies and offering support to one another, queer college organizations statewide will have a much better chance of achieving their goals.
This is not to say that there weren’t some issues with the conference. Some participants were upset that there was a $10 entry fee for non-students, which they thought served as a barrier to attendance for some. More than a few people voiced disappointment at the lack of group session devoted to mental health in the queer community, a large and persistent issue and a couple felt that the “plus” identities in LGBTQA+ weren’t given enough attention.
But those problems didn’t stop attendees from enjoying the conference, networking with other allies and learning as much as they could. Throughout the day, a feeling of unity settled over the Business Education Complex. By the end of the day, all conference-goers seem to have knitted themselves together as partners in a universal struggle for civil rights.
Jen Jones, the keynote speaker for the conference, fed off of this sense of community, riling up the audience with her inspirational story of running through North Carolina to campaign against the state’s constitutional ban on marriage equality. At the end of her speech, she turned to the audience and asked them if she could get an amen.
“Amen,” the audience responded enthusiastically.
The Louisiana queer community is bold, unbroken, and more resilient than ever. This conference created new connections that will make the community stronger, spread awareness of major issues and educated people on the next frontier of equal rights issues.
The ambitious theme gave this conference a lot to live up to — and the groups that came together to make LAQC 2015 happen delivered in every way.
Logan Anderson is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Houston, Texas. You can reach her on Twitter @LoganD_Anderson.