Creating Change opened today with day long institutes tackling racism within the LGBT community.
Attendees continued to arrive and received their welcome packets at the registration desk located on the first floor of the conference center across the street from the hotel. Saturday will probably be the busiest day at Creating Change. Many of the attendees were planning to head over to Cedar Springs for First Wednesday this evening.
Gabe Javier is the senior assistant director of the Spectrum Center at the University of Michigan. He served as local co-chair of Creating Change 20 in Detroit two years ago.
He said, “The city is still using the conference as a touchstone for the LGBT community’s common experience.”
He said that the value of the conference is that “we see a huge spectrum of issues and see that they’re all connected.”
FIERCE, a New York-based youth group, conducted one of the institutes. I’ll meet with them early this evening. After that, I’ll be talking to Roberta Sklar about the National Anti-Violence Project, if her plane is not delayed because of the weather.
Tomorrow morning, the alternative National Prayer Breakfast will be held at 8 a.m. in response to the prayer breakfast that will be held at about the same time in Washington, D.C. The president will attend that one, but so will the American instigators of the Ugandan genocide bill.
Kate Clinton mentioned to me that she wanted to run up to see George Bush’s house while she was here. She mentioned it again this afternoon on Twitter. When I interviewed her, I did sort of promise.
