Washington Blade - August 16, 2002
Mike Fleming

We missed working together," said Eric Rofes, a summit organizer and author of "Reviving the Tribe" and "Dry Bones Breathe," books about rallying gay men in the ongoing face of AIDS. "The lesbian health movement was really getting going, transgender health was just emerging and of course gay men's health continues. So we thought a unified summit along with these separate movements could combine our power and strengths."

With more than 175 sessions that feature some of the top researchers, authors and health advocates in the country, organizers went out of their way to be inclusive of bisexual, transgender and intersex issues, populations that have previously been ignored or de-prioritized, Rofes said.

"It's very exciting to me that from the start, we included bisexual and transgender community leaders in a much more than tokenistic way," he said. "And last year, intersex activists came to the collective, educated us on their issues and lobbied successfully to give them equal time - not only at the summit but at the table of overall health."

Intersex people are born with partial or whole sets of reproductive organs from both sexes, and are part of a burgeoning movement to be recognized.

And while all of the issues that summit participants face may not be the same, an inclusive conference provides a chance to learn about each other and present a unified front, said Marj Plumb, a summit organizer, longtime lesbian health advocate and former policy director at the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association.

"I think we are at a place in our larger movement history where we understand that gender and sexuality are not so easy to slice up," Plumb said. "Our edges are blurred. We need a large enough container to hold all of us because, quite frankly, no other distinctions really make sense." That doesn't mean that separate movements should not continue, Rofes added.

"One of the tensions that has emerged is that some people want to make sure separate movements are not forgotten," Rofes said. "We've had to balance that people live in specific communities with specific needs, but that funding streams and the power of a unified coalition suggest that an inclusive setting can also be helpful."

To that end, conference organizers hope to hold the gay health summit every two years, with every other year hosting events for specific groups, he said.

Beyond disease to wellness

Because of the death toll from AIDS and breast cancer in the last 20 years, "queer health" has focused on disease, and moving beyond that to discuss wellness is another goal of the conference, said bisexual health advocate and nurse Monica McLemore, also a member of the organizing committee. "A multidisciplinary conference on health issues can bring forward a research and health agenda independent of pathology and begin to address the health care needs and eliminate disparities in care," McLemore said.

FOR MORE INFO

LGBTI Health Summit 2002

Aug. 21-25

Millennium Hotel

1345 28th St.

Boulder, CO 80302

www.healthsummit2002.org

What may become the most important goal for the summit is what Rofes calls "taking the movement back" to affected populations and out of the hands of institutions like the

"We're asking where the agenda should be set,'" Rofes said. "Should it be in the hands of higher-status, degreed or elected people? Should it be with the Bush administration, researchers or the heads of AIDS organizations? Or should it be in the hands of a broad mix of people who are served and affected by these decision-makers?"

Researchers from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control & Prevention are expected to attend the conference, along with advocates who represent grassroots approaches that work alongside institutionalized leadership, Rofes said.

"HIV prevention work, for example, has gotten away from the precise populations and subcultures and more into the hands of research-based leadership," Rofes said. "We expect the summit to give birth to a new queer leadership that addresses issues in more complicated ways that past approaches."
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