As February rolled around, over 4,000 social activists with innumerable unique identities made their way to Denver for the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change; in that flock was Colorado College student Spencer Spotts (’17).
CC’s Venture Grant, along with undying support and guidance from the college’s Wellness Center, made this experience possible for Spotts.
Venture Grants are awards of money given to students to pursue their interests and dreams, which they otherwise could not fulfill.
“When a lot of people hear about the conference, the first thing that their minds go to is marriage equality,” said Spotts. “However, marriage equality was one of the last reasons why we were there because there’s so many issues affecting LGBT individuals.”
Over the four days of the conference, these social activists gathered to hear from keynote speakers, participate in over 390 hard-hitting workshops, and finish off the days with discussions that centered themselves on their own identities.
Some of the workshops in the conference included: Building Allyship on College Campuses, Bad Medicine: Conversion Therapy Laws, Masculinity without Misogyny, Queering Violence: IPV, and The Ties That Bind: Coming Out, Acceptance, & Families.
“It’s one thing to be in the classroom reading about different people’s experiences and stories and saying that you’re an advocate for them and for social justice,” said Spotts. “However to meet these people and hear their stories, it puts a lot more weight on the seriousness of these issues.”
One speaker that really stuck out to Spotts was CeCe McDonald. McDonald is a black trans woman who was wrongfully imprisoned on the charge of second-degree murder after being a victim to a hate crime.
After her release, she told her story through an Ebony.com article, which won her a GLAAD Media Award for “Outstanding Digital Journalism Article,” an award at the conference, and a grand round of applause from black trans actress, Laverne Cox.
“It’s a really great conference because it covers so much and it’s made for a wide range of perspectives and identities,” said Spotts. “I loved it because it was such a diverse group of people for so many reasons: race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, education level, citizenship status, and the intersection of these.”
Spotts along with Brett Gray, Student Specialist, and Tara Misra, Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, attended the conference and spent hours discussing how they could bring back some of the spirit of inclusivity back to CC.
Currently, the three are discussing panels and campaigns that could help balance the weight of these topics along with more positive and light approaches. Among these ideas are panels on knowing your rights under Title IX, a “First Clue” on identifying as LGBTQIA, and peer-to-peer sex education, although some of these may be more long-term goals.
“Sometimes, in the classroom, we forget that we’re talking about real lives and that people are actually living out these experiences on a day-to-day basis,” said Spotts.
“Even though it was hard to deal with, I’m glad I had to because it’s inspired me to learn even more and push me even more,” he continued.
Spotts encourages students to seek out funding through Venture Grants so that the college as a whole can gain more worldly knowledge and gain more perspective on social justice issues.
Together, the student body can live up to its full, inclusive, equal, and activist potential.