Creating Change With Fairness Leaders from Across the Country

Jody Cofer

Our state was represented well this past week at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) annual conference, Creating Change, held in Kansas City, Missouri. Kentucky Fairness Alliance members and others took part in sessions on a wide variety of topics, networking with others from around the country, and discussing the state of our movement. Networking with volunteers, staff, and board members from other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations of both advocacy and service was inspiring.

The days were filled with workshops on empowering people of faith, assessing progress in a difficult environment, and building strategies for grassroots organizing. Matt Foreman, NGLTF Executive Director, spoke of the importance that everyone plays in continuing the good fight. "Equality is the floor and a transformed America is the ceiling," he said.  His address included the mentioning of local ordinances passed across the country, including the one in Covington, Kentucky.

We must continue our progress to speak as a unified voice for fairness. We must proactively tell our stories, even when heart-achingly sad. Along with our allies, we should always respond and never simply answer to negative, untruthful, and hotheaded coverage of our community. It looks that the thermostat has been turned down and it could be a cold legislative season as we defend equal access to employment benefits at our state universities. As the NGLTF says, "Action is hot" so let's turn up the heat across the Commonwealth!

Creating Change helped me understand that labeling is not always a bad thing and sometimes it brings with it a sense of community and a better understanding of ourselves. No matter what we may be called this coming year by closed-minded individuals, we must remember that fairness in our communities and the workplace is deserved by all - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or straight!