The University of Illinois-Urbana, Champaign will play host to the Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Ally College Conference ( MBLGTACC ) this year, drawing several thousand students, faculty and staff to the C-U area.
The 2001 college conference, whose mouthful of a name has been shortened by UIUC students to the Big Gay Conference ( BGC ) , is entitled Out and About: Breaking the Silence, Breaking the Boundaries, Breaking the Labels. It will be held Feb. 16-18 on the Champaign campus. Registration at the door is $45 per person, and housing information can be found on the at www.uiuc.edu/ro/mblgtcc2001.
Organizers this year added "ally" to the event's title to recognize the support given to the community by non-GLBT-identified people.
The conference has been held at schools across the Midwest since 1993, with St. Cloud State University in Minnesota hosting last year. Other past host campuses include the University of Illinois at Chicago, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The conferences are typically broken down into a series of workshops and panels, speeches and nightly entertainment.
Confirmed workshop topics include: It Couldn't Happen Here: AIDS on Campus; Leave Your Gender at the Door; Building Queer Communities at Liberal Arts Colleges and In or Out in Professional Education.
This year's speakers are:
Actor/activist Wilson Cruz, who is likely best known for his role on the 1990s TV series My So-Called Life. Cruz has been an outspoken speaker for gay causes since playing the first gay teenager on a major network series, and is a past spokesperson for the Los Angeles GLBT Community Center's teen program.
Shane Windmeyer, who is co-editor of Out on Fraternity Row: Personal Accounts of Being Gay in a College Fraternity. He is also the founder and coordinator of the Lambda 10 Project—National Clearinghouse for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Greek Issues.
Alice Y. Hom, co-editor of Q & A: Queer in Asian America.
Abigail Garner, founder of the Website www.familieslikemine.com, and author of the syndicated column of the same name [ which appears monthly in Windy City Times ] .
Deirdre McCloskey, author of Crossing: A Memoir, who currently teaches at UIC.
Lesbian Chicago journalist Kennette Crockett, whose writing is included in the newly released anthology The Greatest Taboo: Homosexuality in the Black Communities.
This year's entertainers are as diverse as the list of speakers. They are:
New-York based, award-winning poet Staceyann Chin. ( Anyone who attended the 1999 Chicago Black Lesbians and Gays Unity conference will recognize the energetic Chin as the winner of the event's Poetry Slam. )
Pansy Division, one of the country's first all-gay rock bands
Folksinger Joni Laurence
Amasong, Champaign-Urbana's premier lesbian/feminist chorus
Guitarist/singer Annie Chey, currently a student at UIUC
Columbus,Ohio-based H.I.S. Kings, an all-lesbian drag troupe. The kings have made several Chicago appearances in the last year, including two benefits at Circuit and Berlin.