LGBTQ Activists of Color Talk Trump and What They’re Doing to Create Change [VIDEO]

By Video by Tiye Rose. Introduction by Sameer Rao Jan 25, 2017

Against the backdrop of Donald Trump‘s inauguration and the Women’s Marches worldwide, LGBTQ activists and allies gathered in Philadelphia last week for the 29th annual Creating Change conference.  

Presented by the National LGBTQ Task Force, Creating Change has historically served as an important center of resistance organizing. Recently, some of that protest has been aimed at the conference itself. Protesters shut down a reception at last year’s conference organized by A Wider Bridge, a pro-Israel group. This year there was a demonstration demanding that the conference center Black trans voices. To address the tensions, the Task Force underwent a third-party review. Recommendations include diversifying the conference’s programming team and focusing more on intersectional issues. 

Creating Change this year opened with a full-day racial justice institute on Wednesday (January 18). The following day, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, the president of the North Carolina Conference of the NAACP and the leader of Moral Mondays, spoke about building bridges between Black and LGBTQ struggles. Many conference participants joined Philadelphia’s Women’s March on Saturday (January 21), which featured an appeal for intersectional resistance to the Trump administration.  Colorlines interviewed a number of conference-goers of color about race, Trump and their priorities for action in the current political atmosphere. Here’s what they had to say: