LGBT in the South CLE/Conference

Wow, what a conference! Last week the Hart Law Group was thrilled to co-sponsor along with the Campaign for Southern Equality and the National Center for Lesbian Rights the first annual LGBT in the South conference and CLE. Thank you also to the organization and business co-sponsors who helped make this event such a success: Marriage Equality USA, Equality Federation, New Organizing Institute, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, Gender Benders, SC Equality, Freedom to Marry, Western NC Citizens Ending Institutional Bigotry, Asheville First Congregational United Church of Christ, the National LGBT Bar Association, City Bakery, French Broad Chocolate Lounge, Edna’s of Asheville, Kyle Murphy Photography, Dynamite Coffee Roasting Co., Oskar Blues Brewery, Aloft Hotel, Hotel Indigo, Four Points by Sheraton and The Venue.

Please read below for an excellent summary of the conference from QNotes.

In It Together: Conference focuses on intersectionality in the South

200 attend Asheville conference by Campaign for Southern Equality

More than 200 people attended the conference over Friday and Saturday. Here, a packed house listens as the conference begins on Saturday morning.
Photo Credit: Campaign for Southern Equality.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Activists and organizers from eight states across the South gathered in this North Carolina Blue Ridge city Friday and Saturday for the Campaign for Southern Equality’s first conference, “LGBT in the South: Advocacy Within and Beyond the Law.”

Intersectionality was a recurrent theme at the event, filled with information for legal professionals, activists, faith leaders and lay people striving for LGBT rights. The conference was sponsored primarily by Asheville’s Hart Law Group and the Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE).

Friday’s sessions were focused on panels and workshops for legal professionals. As Hart attorney Mae Craedick introduced an early morning line-up of such heavy hitters as Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger, CSE Executive Director the Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara and Shannon Price Minter, keynote speaker and legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, it was clear that this conference was the place to be for anyone serious about procuring and defending LGBT rights in the South.

A first glance at the program led one to believe that the focus (particularly on Saturday) would be on marriage equality with participation not only by the staff at CSE but by such notable speakers as Michael Crawford and Jake Loesch of Freedom to Marry and Marriage Equality USA’s Brian Silva. Indeed, there was a tremendous focus on marriage equality but as highly-respected activist Mandy Carter, co-foudner of Southerners on New Ground and national coordinator of the Bayard Rustin 2012-2013 Commemoration Project, reiterated, “It’s about marriage equality and….”

Read the full article here.