32nd Annual Creating Change LGBTQIA+ Conference:
Decentering Whiteness & White Supremacy 

     The conference was a vibrant, lively and truly beautiful experience where folks were able to show up exactly how they are or explore who they want to be, free from judgment. 

New LGBTQIA+ specialist Amie Archambault shares her impression above about the 32nd Annual Creating Change Conference which she attended in Dallas, Texas last January with Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Amit Teneja along with three Holy Cross students (Adam Coshal 20’, Daniel Tallman 21’ & Natalie DiMattia 22’).

Amie, a first time attendee to the conference appreciates how the gathering created space to explore ideas, share stories, challenge each other, both make and own mistakes, call in, learn, and just to be in community. A model for what it truly means to be radically inclusive, the conference Amie shares, was welcoming for all genders, sexualities, religions, races, ethnicities, ages, abilities, languages, medical needs, and even folks in recovery from substances. 

The conference theme: "Love, Learning, and Liberation," focused on race and de-centering whiteness within the LGBTQIA+ community. Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force Rea Carey, shares how the conference can be approached not only as engendering allyship with those who are most marginalized [Black Trans Women] but as well as a means to becoming a "furious accomplice.” There's much that can be done, Carey explains against the epidemic of violence against Black Trans Women and for centering their voices within the queer community.

For this year's conference, nearly all workshops, keynote addresses, and plenary sessions intersected with race or decentering whiteness within queer communities. Some of the sessions included, but not limited to the themes: Latinx LGBTQ Immigrants and History; Interrupting White Nationalism, Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia; A love Supreme- Transforming Black Churches into Beloved Communities; Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation with Queer Lens: Inclusion of the Queer Voice in Racial Healing; and Moving Past Resilience to Thriving for Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC).
Holy Cross student Natalie who attended the conference notes that the session on "Working From Whiteness: Supporting and Challenging LGBTQIA+ White College Students," made the biggest impact on her. “This was the first time when I was in an all white space of people who were actively doing the work (of antiracism and decentering whiteness),” she says.

Holy Cross Pride co-chair Daniel also notes the refreshing feeling of how to be in a space where being queer was normalized. Daniel reports that he had a similar experience when he attended the Queer Middle Eastern and North African Caucus where he felt he was "very removed from my middle eastern identity." Being around folks who center this identity within this [queer] community was for Daniel "very unique." "I don't think I could find that (experience) anywhere else,” he said. 

In Amie’s new role as the LGBTQIA+ Specialist here at Holy Cross, it is a priority of hers to ensure that ALL LGBTQIA+ students at the college feel that their voice is being heard. If you are interested in connecting with Amie around your ideas, concerns, hopes and dreams for the future of queer programs and services on the hill, please visit her at office hours in the Hub Thursdays from 1-4 pm or email her directly to set up a time to meet at anarcham@holycross.edu