Announcing a Warm Invitation to the:
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Wednesday - Sunday, March 14th - 18th, 2007
"Beyond Boundaries: A Blueprint for LGBTI Healthcare Equality"
http://www.healthsummit2007.org/
We call ourselves the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, and Intersex Health Summit- we are dedicated to
preserving and improving the emotional, physical, spiritual,
mental, and social health and wellness of LGBTI people in this
country, who continue to experience significant health
disparities because of our sexual orientations or gender
identities.
We invite you to spend a few days working intensively with
colleagues from all over the country and the world who are
grappling with similar challenges; engage in deep thinking and
extended discussion about new responses and innovative
programming. We embrace and welcome to this work all individuals
who support the health and well being of LGBTI people everywhere.
This summit is different from a traditional health conference.
Our earlier summits have been described as nurturing retreats,
exciting think tanks, and moments of great enlightenment. One
attendee called it a "vacation workshop" where he returned home
"energized and inspired to do this work for another year."
We create activities where we ask everyone to reach out across
ethnic / racial, generational, and socio-economic differences and
begin to talk and work toward common goals. We avoid a focus on
celebrities and big names, and we take plenty of time to relax,
have fun, and make contact with other participants in meaningful
ways.
While the summit will include speakers, panels, workshops,
pres-summit institutes and organizing meetings, it will also
include interactive exercises, experiential education activities,
yoga and other forms of self-care, as well as creative
festivities. We tackle a range of topics that includes, but is
not limited to:
Community wellness
Health leadership
Health care access
Frontiers in HIV/AIDS and STD prevention and care
Youth and elder strategies
Universal health care and other paths to LGBTI health
Spiritual strategies toward community health
Self-care for the community organizer
Marriage equality as a health strategy
Diversity of family structures as part of LGBTI health
Understanding out bodies: What does it mean to be L,G,B,T or I ?
WHO WE ARE
We are a diverse group of health educators, medical providers,
policy makers, activists, people with HIV, and members of diverse
LGBTI communities with powerful concerns about the ways current
health challenges and socio-political trends will impact our
communities in the months and years to come.
We come from different locations, cultures, generations, and
professions, but we share a common interest in improving LGBTI
health and wellness, strengthening our local communities and
subcultures, and enlisting service providers, activists, health
professionals, researchers, spiritual leaders, writers, cultural
workers, and our allies in these efforts.
We know that language can be problematic, and that many people do
not identify with terms such as gay, lesbian, or transgender. In
addition to nurturing and supporting those who do identify as
part of LGBNTI communities, our summit strives to welcome to this
work those who identify otherwise - as queer, gender queer,
same-gender loving; all folks with a wide diversity of sexual and
gender identities.
We believe it is critically important at this particular moment
for all of us to join together commemorate our collective
triumphs, and strategically address in new and innovative ways
the core challenges facing our communities.
As with previous summits, this year's summit in Philadelphia is a
grassroots organizing effort with very ambitious aims. It is
being organized by dedicated volunteers in various parts of the
country, who work together to handle logistics, program planning,
fundraising, publicity, and accommodations.
It is imperative that everyone plan no to attend this important
event
We need to hear from those who face daunting questions and
formidable challenges as well as those who have succeeded in
creating effective programs and campaigns. We welcome activists
as well as researchers, doctors as well as holistic health
practitioners, religious and spiritual leaders as well as sex
workers. Most of all, we request the participation of regular
LGBTI folks who will share their experiences, questions, and
energy as we build a movement around community health and
empowerment.
We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia,
Wednesday through Sunday, March 14th through 18th, 2007,
as we go "Beyond Boundaries" and truly create
"a blueprint for LGBTI healthcare equality."
Thank you.
http://www.healthsummit2007.org/
