Power is sexy! Action is hot!
Those were the popping mantras of the recent National Conference on LGBT Equality sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in good old Detroit, Michigan. I did a warm up show the night before the conference in Ann Arbor at the wonderful Ark. Good thing the action at the confab was hot, because otherwise it was fa-reezing. Not that I ever left the hotel for four days.
It was their 20th such activist conference and it was like old Homo week. I saw a lot of old pals – the brilliant historian and biographer of Bayard Rustin, John D’Emilio; longtime activist and founder of Southerners On New Ground [SONG], Mandy Carter; and conference founder and general hell-raiser, Sue Hyde.
And I fell under the spell of roving gangs of young gay activists who brought me to poetry slams, dances and real-time organizing. We fought about Clinton v. Obama, kissed, made up and pledged to work to defeat whatever old Warhead the Republicans threw up.
The old homos embraced me, and I them. Just as they changed the health system to deal and deliver around the AIDS crisis, they are at it again to bring their skill-sets to transforming aging in this country. We are having a second wind, so watch out.
Trans-activists were fierce, funny and firm with me, making sure that I got the T in every mention of our community in my duties as emcee of the daily plenary sessions. We heard Julian Bond of the NAACP, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon.
If you feel a subtle or not-so-subtle shift in the energy of your LGBT community, it’s because some hot, powerful, sexy activists have returned home from the Creating Change Conference and they are ready to kick it up.
Think about attending next year, January 2009, in Denver. It’s a friggin, awesome, rejuvenating blast.
February 15, 2008 @ 5:13 am
Just wanted to say thank you for coming to detroit in february. My partner and I were at your show in Ann Arbor, it was on our fourth anniversary which made deciding to see your show a no-brainer. You were fabulous! How’s the spiritual program coming? Seeing your show made for a special, and somehow perfect anniversary.