Randy Roberts Potts is the grandson of the evangelical crusader Oral Roberts, sharing his intimate story of coming out in the televangelist community as he overcame bullying, isolation and shame. Potts has spent his career working with young people -- in schools, anti-bullying programs, in juvenile justice programs writing and speaking nationally on related issues.
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer Speakers
Powerful GLBTQ Programs
Kate Clinton is a faith-based, tax-paying, America-loving political humorist and family entertainer. Clinton uses humor as a force for social change and has been performing nationwide for 28 years. Her "standup" lecture reviews theories of contemporary comedy, debunks the premature report of the death of irony, and reveals the secret human longing for the wild ride of smart, challenging humor. Oh, and it entertains you. Really entertains you.
Vaid is an attorney and community organizer, and the author of the award-winning analysis of the gay rights movement entitled "Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation." Formerly Director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's Policy Institute, she remains committed to community-based change through strategic thinking and coalition building.
Legendary activist and founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Jones was recently portrayed by actor Emile Hirsch in Gus Van Sant's film Milk, which won two Academy Awards,including Best Original Screenplay.
Cheryl Ann Costa wears many hats: she is a security engineer, a practicing Buddhist, a theater producer, a playwright and a trans-woman. Costa crossed the boundary of gender when she transitioned from male to female in the mid nineteen-eighties. In her presentation she discusses the differences between "Sex" and "Gender" and her personal journey through life with courage, conviction, and healthy dose of humor.
In his workshops and multi media presentations "Gay, Greek and Proud" , Leif shares his personal triumph of being out in a college fraternity. With the national spotlight on bullying behavior Leif integrates this topic into all of his presentations.
Award-winning author and journalist Neil Miller looks at the changing lives of gays and lesbians in small communities across the United States and around the globe in his acclaimed books "In Search of Gay America and Out in the World." His most recent book, "Sex-Crime Panic: A Journey to the Paranoid Heart of the 1950's," shows the dark chapter in history where the personal lives of gay men in America's heartland were destroyed.
Should gay and lesbian couples be allowed to marry legally? Author and philosophy professor Richard Mohr proposes that giving same-sex couples equal rights is just another step in a longer ongoing evolution of marriage as an institution. Attorney and legal scholar Dwight G. Duncan argues that "gay marriage" is simply another attempt to normalize homosexual behavior.
Comedian and Actress Diana Yanez, tells a powerful and fantastically funny, personal account of growing up Cuban, Catholic and closeted in Miami! She is Winner of the Overall Excellence Award at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival and has appeared Off-Broadway in Margaret Cho's “Sensuous Woman” as well as with Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Henry and Rosie O'Donnell.
Ms. magazine columnist Hernandez -- self-described as a "Catholic Cuban-Colombian girl from New Jersey" – offers perspectives of life lived as young feminists of color, exploring commonalities and cultural differences and examining macho cultures and American capitalism. She expresses a more radical, racialized feminism that broadens the movement beyond its early incarnation.
Carolina De Robertis is an award-winning, internationally bestselling novelist, literary translator, and community activist. She is also a Latina lesbian who has married the same woman three times as they weather the storms of their changing legal status in California. She speaks with warmth, humor, and genuine openness about the flesh-and-blood experiences behind the headlines regarding gay marriage, life as a queer mother, and the rapidly changing landscape of LGBTQ realities throughout the U.S., Latin America, and the world. De Robertis offers her personal experience, along with broader information, as a prism for a larger conversation about sexual diversity, cultural identity, and the power of affirming each person’s inner truth.
