I spoke too soon! In my Thanksgiving post, I mentioned that I was *hopefully* presenting two workshops at Creating Change in Detroit. Sadly, I just received word that both my proposals were rejected! I am reminded of Eric Rofes' constant struggle with Conference Director Sue Hyde (who I interned with in Boston in the summer of 2003) over his many workshop proposals that were generally rejected. I worry that, now that I'm labeled an "academic," perhaps I'm no longer welcome at Creating Change as I'm no longer a full time organizer / activist (whatever that means!).
I submitted two proposals, both of which I think were timely and reasonably compelling. I wasn't surprised that they rejected my proposal on the ethics social marketing as a tool for HIV prevention (although this was submitted as part of a larger "LGBT Health" mini-track, which I thought Sue had agreed to prioritize), but I was surprised that they rejected the proposal I submitted with fellow UM'er Paul Farber titled "Making it Work!: Mobilizing Gay and Lesbian Identities in the 21st Century" - the premise of which was that, while gay and lesbian were still useful sites of resistance in certain places (small towns, rural areas, etc), their utility in major metropolitan areas was on the rapid decline (San Francisco, for instance, where politically mobilizing gays "as gays" around anything is just about impossible).
If the movement is to sustain itself over the coming years, conversations like this are (in my opinion) *critical*. Too often we simply take for granted that our current modes of organizing are the best or most effective - but this to me is clearly not the case in many places (particularly on the national level, with organizations like HRC existing solely for the purpose of raising money to pay its staff).
Oh well. I'm still going to keep my commitment as a member of the host committee and in particular as a member of the "Youth Engagement" subcommittee (this'll be the last year I'll be a youth at Creating Change!). But, yea, I'm pretty bummed.
