1. Queer Texas Conference November 11-12, 2011 texasqsa.blogspot.com A Project of the Queer Students Alliance

2. The Queer Texas Conference is a project of the Queer Students Alliance QSA Board Spencer Mainka................................................Director Torsten Knabe...........................................Vice Director Zach Frye..................................................Vice Director Kent Kasischke...............................................Treasurer Eddie Camacho......................................Social Director Cameron Mousighi...................On Campus Community Outreach Director Mary Dinh..........................................Austin Community Outreach Director Visit us online at texasqsa.blogspot.com

3. Queer Texas Conference Etiquette Press, Camera, and Video Etiquette In an effort to protect the privacy of our conference attendees, speakers, and staff, please be aware that some are not out to their families, friends, or places of employment. Be respectful and conscious of who is in the frame of photos or videos and request permission before recording. Press, please consider all information not directly offered by attendees, speakers, or staff to be “off the record”. On Gender Neutral Restrooms One way of acknowledging transgender/gender non-conforming people's needs is to designate restrooms as gender neutral. In restrooms, many transgender/gender non-conforming people face harassment that can lead to anything from deep discomfort to arrest or deat. Here at the Queer Texas Conference, we have designated the main restrooms of our venues as gender neutral to accommodate the needs of our Conference attendees. Regardless of what bathroom you are in, please let everyone use it in peace. Each of us can decide for ourselves in which bathroom we belong.

4. A word about Transgender Etiquette There are many transgender and gender non-conforming people at the Queer Texas Conference. To be inclusive and improve the quality of life for transgender and gender non-conforming people here, please read and act upon the following. Please do not assume anyone's gender, even people you may have met in the past. A person's external appearance may not match their internal gender identity. You cannot know the gender or sex of someone by their physical body, voice, appearance or mannerisms. Pay attention to a person' purposeful gender expression. We consider it polite at the Queer Texas Conference to ask: “What are your preferred gender pronouns?” or “How do you identify?” before using pronouns or gendered words for anyone. When you are unsure of a person's gender identity and you don't have an opportunity to ask someone what words they prefer, try using that person' name or gender-neutral a phrase like “the person in the red shirt” instead of “that woman or man.” Please listen to transgender and gender non-conforming people's needs and stories when they are volunteered; but please respect people's privacy and boundaries. Do not ask unnecessary questions. Educate yourself through books, websites, and transgender and gender non-conforming people workshops. Then please join the many hardworking allies who are working to respond appropriately to transphobic situations. Respectful allies, who learn from and with transgender and gender non-conforming people and then educate others, are important for a successful transgender and gender non-conforming people liberation. Thank you for your help.

5. Creating Accessibility In an effort to make the Queer Texas Conference welcoming and accessible to people with disabilities, we have assembled the following guidelines for creating a community where people with disabilities are valued and respected. Words like “cripple,” “spastic,” “lame,” “retard,” and “crazy,” have been used to bully and oppress people with disabilities for many decades. Don't use these words casually. You may head people with disabilities calling each other crip or gimp. This is “insider” language. It's not appropriate language for non-disabled people to use. Ask and wait for an answer before you try to help someone. What you assume is helpful may not be. If you are having difficulty communicating with someone, try a different form of communication, maybe writing or demonstration instead of talking. When you see someone using a service animal or guide dog, do not pet, offer food to, or distract the animal in any way. In order to be understood by as many people as possible speak at a moderate volume and pace. Practice active listening by asking and responding to questions and giving both verbal and non-verbal cues that you are still engaged in the conversation. When you are speaking to someone using an interpreter, address the person you are speaking with, not the interpreter. Please listen to the needs and stories of people with disabilities when they are volunteered; but please respect people's privacy and boundaries by not asking unnecessarily intrusive questions. Educate yourself through books, web sites, and at disability related workshops. Then, please join the many hard-working allies that are working to respond appropriately to ableist situations.

6. Schedule Friday, November 11 “ March On” Screening and Discussion 6:00-9pm Saturday, November 12 8:00-9:30am Breakfast and Check-in 9:30-10:30am Session I 10:45-11:30am (Utopia) Angela Faye Brown 11:30-12:00pm Lunch 12:00-1:00pm Session II 1:15-2:15pm Session III 2:30-4:30pm Creating a statewide network of LGBTQ Campus Organizations

7. Session I Workshop Descriptions Saturday, November 12 9:30-10:30am Cultivating a Compassionate Culture (Room F) Compassion seems to be missing from our environment. According to several social researchers, this may be do to excessive individualism. So how do we combat this trend. We can do so by studying and encouraging empathy as a teachable skill? Queer Composers of the 20 th Century (Room G) Classical music of the 20th century was dominated by gay men. This session will focus on three of the most famous: Ned Rorem, Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein. We'll talk about how they lived their lives in pre-Stonewall America as well as how their sexuality manifested itself in their music. How to be an Activist (Room A) This workshop presented by Jake Gonzales from the Lone Star Diva will focus on different ways to be an activist. It will also help set the framework for the rest of the day. Peers For Pride (Room B) Peers for Pride is a peer facilitation program housed in the Gender and Sexuality Center. PfP facilitators conduct workshops that explore the lives of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people. The facilitators write monologues, perform them, and answer questions from the audience as their monologue characters. Religion, Marriage and Lies: What they don't tell you about Queers in Christianity and America (Room C) This workshop is quick overview on how you can shift through the religious and cultural detritus to find how to see a fresh view of Queer religious history in the West. Uncovering these lies is a powerful force for personal as well as political empowerment both for Queers in the Church and especially those out side it. The Workshop will be referencing scholars both religious and secular that have uncovering Queer Bible texts and Queer history over the last half century.

8. Session I Workshop Descriptions Saturday, November 12 9:30-10:30am Drama and Theatre with LGBT Youth; Applied Theatre and Social Change (Room D) This workshop will be interactive and in the form of a dialogue, introducing drama and theatre techniques ideal for working with queer youth, as well as conversations around queer representations in the arts. Equality Project (Room E) The Equality Project is a public education program on policy issues and their effect on Texas citizens. The Project also trains participants to establish relationships with their state representatives and senators, and to advocate for policy changes with their elected officials. The Project aims to engage the public in maintaining continuous conversations with their elected officials about matters of public policy that are directly impacting constituents' lives. It is these conversations about real people's lives that will ultimately motivate policy changes to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Keynote (Utopia) 10:45-11:30 Angela Faye Brown is a recent graduate of the UT Law school. She is a practicing attorney in family law, adoptions divorce/custody, child support/visitation, family based immigration, LGBTQ families, wills and estates, criminal misdemeanors, and landlord/tenants.

9. Session II Workshop Descriptions Saturday, November 12 12:00-1:00pm Ten Things (Room F) A writing/performance workshop loosely based on Lynda Barry's "What it Is" memory free writing workshop. Delving into memory being inherently performative, how can re-membering bridge the gap between past and present? Using memory, how does queerness insert itself into everyday life? How do we know queerness without talking about everyday practices? How is it always within you without necessarily being "born this way?" Reflections on activism with Harvey Milk (Room A) This workshop is a presentation by Spencer Nutting on his reflections of a 70s gay student activist, who knew Harvey Milk. Queering College Station: Student organizing in an ultra-conservative environment (Room B) Texas A&M University is the least friendly public university for LGBT people in the entire nation as ranked by the Princeton Review, but that doesn't mean that queer people don't live in College station. This interactive workshop will show how student activism has confronted the challenges of entrenched tradition, hate speech, and heteronormativity. Anti-rape activism and queerness (Room C) This workshop by Miranda DuPont is on queer and anti-oppression politics in anti-rape activism; Pro-sex approach to anti-rape activism; Sex after assault. Hispanic and LGBT (Room D) This workshop is an interview and discussion about being hispanic and lgbtq in our society. It will talk about how family affects hispanic lgbtq people and how hispanic lgbtq people often feel alienated in both hispanic and gay communities at times. Gay Rights and the Ballot Box (Room E) This workshop is led by Amy Stone who is in the middle of publishing a book about Gay Rights at the Ballot Box. Her book includes national data on anti-gay ballot measures across the country. She will be talking about anti-gay ballot measures, transgender inclusion in non-discrimination laws, and why same-sex marriage fails at the ballot box.

10. Session III Workshop Descriptions Saturday, November 12 1:15-2:15pm Building Any Campaign: Start to Finish (Room A) This workshop presented by GetEqual Activists John Dean Domingue and Tiffani Bishop will consist of three parts: campaign structures, coalition building/power mapping, and a campaign strategy breakout session. "Campaign structure" will address different types of campaigns—including direct action, education, and fundraising—in order to make the workshop applicable to different types of advocates/activists. This will consist of escalation guides as well as other potential campaign structures. "Power mapping/coalition building" will focus on how to identify and harness positive and negative forces in the scope of your issue in order to start coalition building and action planning. The breakout session will involve planning an actual campaign strategy that session participants will attempt to bring back to and implement in their communities after the conference is over. HIV Education (Room B) This workshop will discuss HIV Education within GLBT student organizations, on college campuses, and programs that can be facilitated to raise awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS as related to college students. This presentation will also include a block of quilt panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Another Closet: Understanding the Dynamics of Intimate Partner Violence Within the LGBTQ Community (Room C) This workshop will define the dynamics and interconnections of the various forms of interpersonal violence that prevent survivors of abuse from coming out and get help which include family, social networks and mainstream social service and criminal justice providers.

11. Session III Workshop Descriptions Saturday, November 12 1:15-2:15pm Gender Fluidity and Biphobia (Room D) This workshop will be a discussion around gender identity and sexual orientation. It will also discuss bi-phobia and the question of allies. Trans 101 (Room E) Basic definitions around trans* issues and an overview of policy issues and problems the trans* community faces. Unraveling Anti-Queerness with Anti-Racism (Room F) Through the discussion of racial power dynamics within gender and sexual institutions, we desire to decolonize, embrace, and imagine a borderless society. We envision a true process of decolonization for queer communities to articulate their experiences in order to annihilate the hegemonic structures that we have learn to accept as norms. LGBTQ Statewide Network (Utopia) There are a number of common problems queer college students across the state face. Currently, there are not many ways for us all to talk to each other. A network of existing queer college organizations is needed to help address these issues. Throughout the conference, please be thinking of different ways this could manifest. This two hour session will be devoted to creating this organization across the state. This two hour session will be webcast at http://www.ustream.tv/user/texasqsa Text your friends and invite them to join! We'll have people monitoring the Ustream chat and regularly pulling in updates from folks online.