Snow fell gently on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Wis., as college students dashed from their hotel to a nearby restaurant or to attend a workshop.
They were meeting for the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender and Ally College Conference ( MBLGTACC ) 2010. The conference, which ran Feb. 19-21, is the oldest Midwest college conference, according to organizers.
Conference attendees were easy to spot, as many were wearing the purple T-shirts given out at registration and even more were lugging the neon orange tote bags that carried their program books and other paperwork.
It took place near the Madison Capitol, at the Monona Terrace Conference Center. Students from every Midwestern state as well as a few states out of the area, such as Florida, attended to attend workshops, network and shape the gay movement that they will inevitably someday control.
Activities began with an opening session Feb. 19 featuring keynote speaker Loren Cameron, who has been taking pictures of those in the transgender movement for over a decade, beginning with a photographic documentation of his transition.
Workshops began Feb. 20 and were as diverse as the crowd attending, including staples such as bisexuality and retention for student groups, as well as distinctive workshops such as "Media Marginality: TV's Effects on LGBT Student Self-Perception."
"MBLGTACC provided an insight into how other campuses run their GSA's and makes it possible for us to collaborate our ideas," said Taralee Morgan, president of Augustana College's gay-straight alliance, PRISM. "Being able to hear what has worked and what hasn't for other GSA's has helped me to feel more confident in going ahead with the next term for PRISM."
In the first workshop block, bright and early at 8 a.m., Natalie Klueg chronicled the history of how media portrays the LGBT population with an presentation entitled "The Big Bad Bisexual Woman." The workshop ended with how bisexuals have been unfairly portrayed in the media, mentioning examples such as the MTV show True Life.
The audience smiled or laughed constantly during the forum. At one point, Klueg compared the portrayal of lesbians to "hulking vampires, except they don't sparkle," referring to the Twilight saga.
After a short break, the second set of workshops began, one of them featuring a panel of Northwestern University staff talking about allies and the importance of educating them.
Another highlight of the day was the media workshop "Media Marginality: TV's Effects on LGBT Student Self-Perception." Audience members faced an intensive session: They watched a clip from Family Guy. In an episode of the popular animated series, a character is injected with the "gay gene" and becomes every gay stereotype imaginable. The audience had to analyze this clip to judge how much harm and good it did, evoking an interesting conversation between those who found it appropriate and those who did not.
"Media has become a super-peer in the last generation. TV influences us a lot more than it has in the past," said Joshua Johnson, one of the presenters.
Another session, "For Hearing People Only," chronicled common misconceptions of deaf people that hearing people have, and reminded the LGBT community how to be all-inclusive.
The weekend wrapped up with Kate Bornstein. She wrote the suicide-alternative book 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws.
Bornstein gave a unique presentation centered around the fact that people can do anything they need to do to stay alive. "Just don't be mean," said Bornstein. She mentioned that sometimes things like anorexia or cutting are alternatives to suicide, but cautioned that they are extremely dangerous and only temporary.
As the conference ended, Bornstein had ushers at the doors hand out "Get Out of Hell Free" cards that stated, "Do whatever you need or want to do in order to make life worth living. Love who and how you want to love. Just don't be mean. Should you get sent to Hell for doing something that isn't mean to someone, I'll do your time in Hell for you. Kiss kiss —Kate."
The University of Michigan will host MBLGTACC 2011 on Feb. 24-27.
