Creating Change 2005

Reclaiming Moral Values: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Agenda for 2006

LGBT rights advocates respond to Task Force call to action; convene in Oakland to strategize and prepare for crucial 2006 mid-term elections and build political power from the ground up

Unprecedented political and legislative attacks bring activists from every corner of the country to Creating Change Conference

More than 2,500 LGBT rights advocates converged on Oakland, Calif., Nov. 9–13, for the 18th Annual Creating Change Conference to strategize around the critical 2006 mid-term elections and build skills to advance LGBT political power. Creating Change is the premier — and largest — annual meeting of the national LGBT community, where the agenda for upcoming battles is set.

The conference came on the heels of the 2005 off-year elections, which saw anti-LGBT ballot initiatives in Texas and Maine. Maine voters rejected a conservative-backed proposal to repeal the state's new LGBT rights law, providing the community with a much-needed victory. In Texas, however, voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and any other form of legal recognition for same-sex couples.

Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman gave a keynote address, Reclaiming Moral Values: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Agenda for 2006, in which he laid out the strategic blueprint for the national LGBT community as it faces the political challenges of 2006.

“We must say over and over and over again, simply, directly, and unambiguously that anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-bisexual and anti-transgender discrimination in all its forms is immoral,” he said, later adding that it was time for the movement to demand that candidates and elected officials “who take our money and get our votes — and here, I’m largely talking about Democrats — stop running and ducking on gay issues.”

Two of the LGBT rights movement’s preeminent thinkers, Urvashi Vaid and John D’Emilio, co-presented a keynote address in which they took on big-picture issues related to the movement: its successes and failures, as well as how best to move forward. They encouraged the community to think beyond short-term gains. D’Emilio reminded attendees that conservatives suffered a stinging defeat 41 years ago with Barry Goldwater's loss in the presidential election, but the right wing built on its loss by making a long-term plan for the transformation of American politics, a plan which is just now coming to fruition. D’Emilio said that the LGBT movement needs to “start making its 40-year plan” for the cause of equality and justice.

Creating Change closed with a thunderous speech by Bishop Yvette Flunder, founder and senior pastor of City of Refuge United Church of Christ in San Francisco, who spoke to the separation many LGBT activists feel from spiritual traditions, saying, “Somebody stole God from some of us. Somebody reached down inside you and stole your spirit from you.” But she encouraged activists not to abandon the spiritual dimension of the work they do for justice, saying, “Activism that is rooted in spirituality can bust Hell wide open.” The audience wildly applauded Flunder’s speech and left the conference with her words resonating as a spiritual call to all justice-seeking people:

“I challenge you, prophets, to stand up!”