creating change in a new year
Family Pride on Jan 5th 2007
In November, three Family Pride staff members, Trina Olson, Jennifer Chrisler, and Kimberly Lang, had the opportunity to attend Creating Change, coined “the premier national grassroots organizing and skills building LGBT conference,” in Kansas City, MO. With over 2,500 activists, leaders, students, and elected officials in attendance, Creating Change was a transformative experience for everyone.
The week before they left for the conference, Trina and Kim sat down to talk about which workshops would most benefit Family Pride. They determined that they would each strive to - become an expert on a subject - Trina on race and class, Kim on transgender inclusion - and chose workshops accordingly.
At the beginning of a session on transgender inclusion, Kim was asked to decide where Family Pride exists on the trans-inclusion continuum. She was surprised to see that our organization is at Stage 2 of 5. Family Pride added the “T” to LGB in 1998, but has never actually offered trans-inclusive programming or done trans-inclusive advocacy work - necessary steps to be in Stage 3. When she looked around the room, she realized that our dilemma is common; all of the LGBT organizations in the room were struggling to learn how to do trans-inclusion well.
The race and class workshops Trina attended, in many ways, paralleled the transgender-inclusion workshops. Trina learned that, on the 6-step continuum of anti-racism, Family Pride was currently on Step 3. In other words, the organization “sees itself as being committed to including people of color,” but isn’t actively working to change historically exclusive patterns.
The good news is, we now know what we don’t know. Kim learned to think inclusively - for example, we should always have a changing room at events so that trans people can present in the way they feel most comfortable - and knows what steps we need to take to get to Stage 3. And Trina learned how to ensure our actions are anti-racist and low-income-inclusive, and knows what we need to do to get Step 4.
After the conference, Trina and Kim presented what they’d learned to the rest of the staff. Although it was initially overwhelming, we’re excited to say that everyone is completely onboard. This year will be monumental for Family Pride. In addition to offering an array of new programs in 2007, Family Pride is now actively working to become transgender-inclusive, anti-racist, and low-income-inclusive.
Filed in general |
