In contrast to the conservative political stance of her brother Newt Gingrich, lesbian activist Candace Gingrich-one of 12 featured speakers at the Southeastern Conference for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender College Groups-emphasized the need to create a climate comfortable for people to express their homosexuality openly.
"People said, 'How can you encourage people to come out?' My thought was, how can I not?" said Gingrich, director of the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project, referring to the Matthew Shepard murder last October. Shepard a gay college student, was killed two weeks before National Coming Out Week. "One of the things that was a strong part of what happened to Matthew was ignorance."
The 1999 conference, held this weekend at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, attracted about 300 participants from North and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Georgia. Sponsored by several North Carolina universities as well as the N.C. Lambda Youth Network, the programming was geared toward student activists. Themes such as Art as Activism and Leading Queers made available a range of thematic workshops, performances, lectures and discussions that addressed student action from distinct perspectives.
"Generally, when folks think about what a student leader does, they anchor on protest and petition," said Jeannette Johnson-Licon, conference coordinator and director of Duke's Center for LGBT Life. "We tried to demonstrate that artists or academics can be activists. There are a lot of ways of pushing social justice movement and acting as a catalyst for change."
Besides Gingrich, featured speakers included both national and local activists, artists and authors. Religion was prominent in the scheduling as well: Friday night's activities included a Queer Shabbat dinner at Hillel, as well as an appearance by Rev. Jimmy Creech, Divinity '70, a Methodist minister who conducted a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple last November.
In her Saturday morning speech, which drew about 150 people, Gingrich noted the importance of people coming out as members of diverse communities, whether religious, educational or political.
"We need to come out as political animals," she said. "To get the chance to be an openly queer elected official is one of the most powerful things you can do."
Later in the day, conference participants split up for presentations and discussions, which ranged from legal and political information sessions to acting and comedy performances.
Steve Willis, who teaches speech and theater at High Point University in High Point, N.C., wrote the play Good Sense, which was performed to a small audience Saturday morning. The one-act play, through a monologue, portrayed a young gay man's experience coming out in rural North Carolina."Sometimes people think it's a big deal when something [like this conference] happens in the South, but... I'm not surprised that there's this event here at Duke," Willis said.
Willis' play was one of five performances that fell under the Art as Activism track.
"Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender artists are out there, working people up to the fact that there are gay and lesbian people who have something to say through art," said Brian Rooney, a Trinity senior and track monitor. "It's good to reach as many people as you can."
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