2007 LGBTI Health Summit- Blue

Almost Happy Trails Time

2007-03-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

We're headed into the home stretch. Today has been more mellow but amazing none the less. Also I don't toss that word around easily. For instance this morning I ran into a friend Shän and I met at Creating Change. Andre is a wonderful person that also does great work for Trans Health in relation to insurance. That's a real challange. OK, so Andre is just great but in addition we get into this conversation about the community, race relations and the detriment of all communities because of racism being used as a secret weapon by others. Yep, and we even had some ways to begin to solve this issue. See, that's what I call amazing.

Hanging out in The Woods

After I talked to ya'll I took a little nap. I was wiped. I got up and went to the workshop, Bear Health: Big, Hairy and Ignored. I learned more stuff than I expected. First the room was filled with big men, young men, trans men, asian men, skinny men femme men, manly men and my little happy butt. I first learned there are so many different names for guys that are Bears: cubs, chubs, brown bears, black bears, wolves, otters, and a bunch more that I don't recall quickly. The demographics of the Bears makes a difference too. West coast Bears are different than East coast Bears that are nothing like Midwestern Bears and yes, regionally they can even be different. San Francisco has differences from L.A. in relation to Bears. Our facilitator, Justin Varney is from Britain. He has a great website for Bears at www.bearhealth.co.uk. He also considers himself a Fashion Cub. I learned that the bear community can be a private, to themselves community. Health wise they have concerns about Heart Disease, Stroke, Depression, Diabetes and Joint issues to name a few. Also HIV is an issue that can be overlooked when it comes to Bears. Why, you may ask? Well, folks can look at Bears like they are the older more mature guys that got their stuff together. Also, out reach folks can be more focused on the stereotypical queer guy and simply over look the guy that has the Bear look. All of this is stereotypes. Bears need outreach as much as everybody else. So go talk to a bear. I'm so glad to know more about the Bear community and their needs. I feel empowered to make sure I keep an eye and some love on my snugglely boys back home.

The last night of Sound Healing

It was a little chilly tonight but everyone was exhaling from relaxation afterwards anyway. We were all so happy that Tony took some time to spend with us and keep us centered during the summit. I hope he attends next year and there is even more holistic opportunities at the summit. Holstic health options are very valuable to our community. It is true preventative health care.

Down time, Reflection time, Zone out time

After the sound healing it was time to go get some food for Shän and me and then FINALLY, dash off to the hot tub! It was really nice. I did have to do some educating for a straight gentleman that had some questions. I was happy (as always) to inform him on some Trans 101 info along with the jewels of information that I learned at the Raising A Transgender Child in an Intolerant Society workshop. Education is the key, ya'll. Even if you're chillin' in the hot tub. You never know who he might have a chat with and it changes someone's life... or even saves a life.
Well, I'm gonna let my food digest and head to beddy bye. Tomorrow is the last day but it's an early day. I will do my best to hit ya'll with one more blog before we leave the hotel. If I don't then I hope to see ya'll readers at the summit next year. Shän and I are surely gonna try to make it myself.

Have a beautiful night.

Love,

Blue

Last Night...

2007-03-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

About last night...

Healing of the Om

Hey There. We left off last night's blog on Last night. After the Bisexual Health Town
Hall I went (for the second time) to Sound Healing. Tony set the mood again with candle
light and beautiful instruments. Yep, all before he started playing anything. As Mr.
Litchenstein from Home Movies said, he took it up a NOTch. This night he intergrated drums
to open us up for healing and also taught about the Chakras. I had a coughing fit at the
beginning but I did get opened up, lost consciousness for a while (that's a good thing) and
felt better afterwards. I'm hoping I got rid of a lot of crappy stuff.

It's a Par-tae

I thought I was gonna go up to my room hook up with Shän, get to that whirlpool and chill.
Well, I ran into Marta and we were sitting down chatting and getting adjusted to the world
after naps and meditation when we were told that there was going to be a Ball Expedition at
the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council Reception. Well, us being two true ethnic sisters
(one African American and one Cuban) we sprinted to our rooms to gather ourselves and I
snatched Ms. Shän and hurriedly trapsed back to the Ballroom. And it was truely a Ballroom
now.
The Black Gay Men's Leadership Council, sponsor of the event, is an organization that uses
advocacy, education and community collaborations to empower Philadelphia's diverse
communities of black gay men by focusing on their social and political advancement and
health and wellness needs, while developing local, regional and national leaders. When we
arrived the room had a D.J. bumpin' along with a beautiful spread of hor d' ouevres and, my
favorite, a slide show of black men from the community and famous African American Queer
folks. Kevin Tramell Jones, one of the founding members of the council said he was excited
to know we were blogging. He's one for history being recorded and loved the thought. Also,
Micheal S. Hinson Jr., the LGBT Liasion to the Mayor (and a fabulous one at that), also
stated excitement with the blog because the conference would reach so many people. After
all this it was time for the show. We sat down and watched a traditional Vogue performance
and then battle. Runway walks by professional Ball House walkers and then walks from
audience members. Some were amateurs others were Ball Icons that were called out like
Tyrone Smith, a long time activist for LGBT, AIDS/HIV, African American issues and where
ever else there needs to be advocacy. Also Ron Simmons, Ph.D., President/CEO of Us Helping
Us, People Into Living, Inc. walked the runway along with Rev. Jeffery A. Haskins Pastor and
Founder of Unity Fellowship Church, Philadelphia who needed not lust to walk the runway but
walked in golden shoes cause he had tred that path before. Goodness I guess I got a little
carried away there. All that to say, they did as RuPaul asked and WORKED. Ask any audience
member there. Oh, and Rev. Jeffrey wanted me to tell ya'll service is every Sunday at 2PM
at 55 West Broad Street. He'll see you there.
This wasn't it, ya'll. The Houses that represented that night was The House of Revlon and
The House of Manolo Blahnik. The Father of the House of Manolo Blahnik was Master of
Ceremony and brought his children to perform. They were young and fierce. I'm sure he's
very proud. The evening was great. Shän, Marta, Patrick (Marta's brother) and I went to
dinner and then... I crashed. Of, course after giving ya'll a taste of the first half of
the day.

The Morning...

But then I was up at 7AM preparing for the day. I had to meet with some of the folks from
the Bisexual Health Town Hall for a suprise we're working on for Sunday. Shhhh!
Afterwards I went to the Raising a Transgender Child in an Intolerant Society: A Parent's
Perspective. Margo Saltzman and Stephanie Guinan presented at this group. They are amazing
only second to their children, Reggi and Jessie. We had the pleasure of meeting Jessie who
is lovely gentleman with a quietly expressive sense of humor. Oh, he's also a drummer and
Athlete (baseball, basketball and soccer, and he really digs soccer). Ladies watch out he's
a charmer! I learned a great deal through their telling of their stories. My main lesson
was to listen to your children. And it's deeper than you think. If your 2 year old or 3
year old tells you, "I'm a boy or I'm a girl." don't say no you're... just listen to them
and take them seriously. Listen to your children. These kids were always expressing who
they were and (my second main lesson) when your repress the self expression of a child crazy
stuff happens like they don't learn quickly or it gets blocked, they want to kill
themselves, they get depressed, they withdraw... I think you get the picture. Again these
aren't adults, these are little children. If you want to know more about trans kids and the
services and support that's out there contact your local PFLAG or shoot an email to
trans.understanding@yahoo.com. Oh, and if you run into Stephanie (she was one of the Ball
walkers last night) she has a booklet called The Agony of Nurturing the Spirit: a mother's
recount of raising a transgendered child. It's a challenge but it can be done to the
benefit of some beautiful spirits, your children.
OK, it's about time to go get lunch and check in with Shän so I'll see ya'll in a few hours
when I recount the rest of the day.

Enjoy the sunlight!

Love,

Blue

Day Deux in 1/2

2007-03-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,
Well, it's day deux. It's still amazing and it's SNOWING. Goodness, snowing but I'm inside, yes, inside. And it's just the afternoon and I've already seen a show. (I wrote this in the afternoon)

The Plenary:

This morning's Plenary included The Smoke, Lilies and Jade Arts Initiative. They were amazing like this day. Their piece was about the challenges of African American Gay and bisexual men. Done in performance art style, it began with all 5 performers processioning in by live violin. It silenced the room. Then it continued with stories of a gay sibbling influencing his little sister, a future person 'in the life'; a gay sibbling's ranting over his gay brothers funeral reception of relatives ignoring the fact that he was gay and how terribly they treated him; a man muses over being honest with his wife of love affair with a man and many other pieces that were expressed in song, poetry, prose with lots of 'realness'. If ya'll can get to Philly in April on the 29th to the 30th come see the premiere performance at the Freedom Theater. For more info go to www.myspace.com/liliesandjade. The performance wasn't all there was that was fabulous. The plenary was called Black Beyond Boundaries. The panel members spoke of how to improve the health outcome in the Queer African American communities. The mayor of Philidelphia, yep, the mayor, John F. Street, was the first to speak and gave a rousing Ally, from the heart, speech that reached everyone. I must say I was impressed. Every city needs a mayor that can think out of the box for the benefit of all the people. The folks that stuck out in my mind were moderator, Damon Humes. He was fun, articulate and to the point all at the same time. But what else would you expect from the Father of the House of Manolo Blahnik. Aamina Morrison, a transgender activist, spoke and I really enjoyed her impromtu talk. She was called last minute to help out. She spoke about her life in a funny and inspiring way that also urged us to support our youth while also believing in oursleves. Long time activist, and Nobel Peace Prize nomminee, Mandy Carter, spoke and it was just wonderful having her here. The Plenary ran over but it was so worth it.

$50,000 Workshop AKA Next Steps on National LGBT Tobacco Action Plan; Building Allies and Coalition: Lessons from Tobacco-Related Health Disparities

OK, running to my room. Grabbing my binder and Shän and off to my next workshop... a 3 hour joint. It didn't seem that long, though. I'm sure all my collegues have blogged about this workshop. It was our required workshop. Let me say what I felt about the session. It is powerful to sit with other activist and talk about how we, as a group, can massively create change. That's what we were doing. We were crafting ways to help our people stay healthy. Can you really ingest you, as a person, affecting 60,000 people? What you do affects how much they might choose to smoke or if they smoke at all. And you assist in creating the alternative they go to if they want to stop smoking. You affect many. Powerful, isn't it? But what really makes you tingle is that you create good that thousands, maybe millions, feel. Good. Now that's revolutionary.

Break

Yep, Ms. Energizer Bunny took one. But only for an hour. I zoned out, ate my wrap, smooched Shän bye bye (she was off to another workshop) and prepared myself for another two hourer...

The Bisexual Health Town Hall

In this gathering,it was about maybe 15 folks, we talked about how to deal with the health issues of bisexual. This was very intriging to me and to everyone else too. See bi folks have issues of identity and visibility. The identity issue is folks don't like the name "bi or bisexual". Bisexual I get. We don't say homosexual. Why would we still say bisexual. Bi is not majorly embraced either, though. So when it's time to gather and such only a percentage of "all gender loving folks" are at the table. Out of this we have the other issue of visibility. I did a workshop on this at the Task Force's Creating Change conference in November. If we can't see each other; if we don't know our culture; if we don't find common ground to relate on then how are we going to help and support each other? We can't dialogue, fully, about bi health issues when the "issue" is created by depression because of issolation or providers not knowing they are providing for a bi person. Out of this we looked at ways to address visibiltiy in relation to health care, be it mental or physical. Providers can show they are bi friendly and educated. Bi people can ask for/request providers that are educated on the LGBT community but in particular, bi people.From the discussion also we realized we have lots of work to do on the cultural end to raise visibility. That will truly start the healing.
OK, I got more to tell but I gotta be up at 7AM or at least try. I'll continue today's stuff tomorrow after my first workshop. Check with me later and have a great day!

Love,

Blue

Hey Everybody!!!! It's Day 1

2007-03-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

The LGBTI Health Summit is great and you just might want to attend next year. That is if you like being informed, helping folks, bonding with really cool folks and making life better for yourself and others.

OK, all that hype so, I'm sure ya'll are like what's happening at the Summit. Maybe who the heck I am first might be best. Hi, there! I'm Blue. I'm the Interim Executive Director of The Lesbian Gay Bi Transgender Community Center of Metropolitan St. Louis. I'm here to take valuable information back to my community particularly on LGBT health issues due to tobacco. Also I'm here to let ya'll know what's going on here. So on that note.

Shän and I came in yesterday evening and got settled in after a great meal at the hotel restaurant Bistro Off Broad. Then we hooked up with the folks from The National LGBT Tobacco Control Network of The Fenway Institute in Boston, our sponsor. It was cool having faces to match the names but chillin' with cool people, like I said, is the best. After all that it was nighty, night time. Then....

RISE AND SHINE at 7 AM to get ready for the day. We headed out for the Plenary and a quick bagel with a bottle of juice. The plenary, "Bodies, Health, Gender and the Future" set the conference off well. The purpose was to present issues that Intersex and Transgender people, from infants to adults face and discuss how the larger LGBT and mainstream community can support and advocate for Intersex and Transgender community members. The main answer that I gathered was to be educated. For instance, know that if a child is born intersex that cutting (mutating) their genitals is a problem for that child immediately (extreme pain from the cutting and healing process) and throughout their lives (the unnessasary surgeries could leave the person without sensations, with anatomy that doesn't match their gender identity and a host of other issues from forcing their bodies to do things unnatural to its design). This may seem like logic to some of ya'll. It did to me. Yet many in the health industry disagree and have caused massive pain to a lot of people. Darlings, we saw a wonderful film during the session called, "One in 2000" by Ajae Clearway, and one point that messed me up was that 5 infants a day, yes, a day, are, in my opinion, genitally mutilated. If you feel I'm being a little dramatic then go to www.fanlight.com and get the film. See for yourself. I personally had the privlege to hear a panel give some of their experience and lots of their opinions on the health issues of intersex and trans people. Again education is the key. We have a lot of children to protect and a big mess from the past to help our Intersex and Trans family members to clean up.

After that emotionally stirring session Shän and I got to sit tight for the first session/workshop of the day, "How the Tobacco Industry Targets Queer America". This began really fun. We played "We're in JEOPARDY". The facilitators asked us questions about statistics on Queer folks in California in relation to tobacco use. Ted from the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership brought his media stuff and facts. If you answered right or wrong.... basically, if you participated you got a cute little Ciggy Buttz doll. Ciggy is really cute and supports you in giving up the butts. We also saw a few anti-smoking video ads and some cool print ads. Why all this effort you might ask. Smoking is a huge issue in the LGBT community. It is bigger than alcohol. And it's making people really sick if not killing them. And, the tobacco industry is focused on us with a laser beam. Why? We're great customers. So during the conference there are a lot of workshops focused on educating and helping the community on tobacco issues. Jamie from Central Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency told us how her agency assists the minority populations to stop smoking and also asked our suggestions on working with the LGBT community. We left this session with our Ciggy Buttz doll, 2 Ciggy Buttz band aids dispensers, two Ciggy Buttz.com catalogue of anti-smoking fun stuff and lots of media information to use at home. Next was....

LUNCH! Goodness we were hungry. We went to Whole Foods with Marta and had a good walk then great food. Sweethearts, its all about vegan chocolate chip cookie bars. Yes, yes.

For the next session Shän and I split up (just to do different tasks... don't get excited). I went to the "Missing In Action; why is the B missing from most LGBTI Health Services?". It was great being in a workshop facilitated by Julie from Fenway Community Health. She's a big ol' Bi Activist and just super cool (one more reference to cool folks at these sorts of events, uh hun.). We talked about the definitions of bisexual, biphobia and bi-invisibilty. From there we started talking about the issues bi folks have when seeing a health professional. Julie kept us on task and we flowed right into how we can help improve the experiences of bi folks in health care situations. Some of the suggestions were advertise with media (posters, websites, etc.) that shows recognition of bi folks; train staff to be educated on bi individuals; Bi folks that inquire about a physician ask if they have bi clients and what is their experience with bi people. For referrals (besides your local LGBT community center) was www.bizone.org/bap for "Bisexually Aware Professionals" and 'Gay and Lesbian Medical Association' website.

Shän and I now played hookie and took an hour to sit in the lobby. Well, maybe not just sit. Shän, as you saw, started her blogging and I worked to begin coordinating our weekend schedule (had just got our hands on the schedule this morning). So it was an hour of non-workshop work. At the end of the hour I went to the Sound Healing session. It was WONDERFUL. A guided meditation with candle light, singing bowls, bells and rattles, what more can a stressed out girl ask for? Marta indulged also and we were really ready for the evening afterwards. Tony, our guide, was very calming and educated us on the powers of sound. I am so happy I got to attend this session.

After this session was Me Time or Our Time for Shän and I. We did some love work for The Center but then we ate dinner. And here I am chatting with ya'll. I'm gonna go now cause Shän is looking at me like I'm gonna explode if I keep typing for one more minute. But don't worry I'll be back on the blog tomorrow to let ya'll know all the happenings.

Have a beautiful night and see you in the morrow.

Love,

Blue