Fri 23 Jan 2015 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Keynote speaker David Kilmnick Next month’s NXT15 Youth Leaders Conference will bring together youth advocates from New Zealand and the Pacific with the theme ‘Strength in Numbers’. It’s being co-hosted by Auckland Pride Festival and the US Embassy from February 19-21. The Embassy says lgbtiq youth will focus on combining forces to strengthen governance and leadership skills at a grassroots level, and work together to build networks between support and advocacy groups in urban and rural areas in New Zealand and in the South Pacific. They will also march in the Auckland Pride Parade. The keynote speaker will be American gay rights advocate David Kilmnick, who has campaigned for rainbow communities for more than 25 years and founded three support centres in the US. He says he is honoured to be speaking. “Lgbtiq youth lives depend on and need strong organisations and support all across the globe,” he says. “By sharing best practices and strategies we can accomplish this and make sure the great resiliency, talent and strength of our LGBTIQ youth shines from progressive communities to the most conservative ones.” Academy Awards-nominated filmmaker Welby Ings, and RainbowYOUTH advocates Duncan Mathews and Aych McArdle will also be among the speakers and panellists. This is the second year the Auckland Pride Festival and the US Embassy have partnered for the LGBTIQ conference. Last year’s conference, NXT14, was a finalist at the Gold Standard Awards for Diplomatic Engagement at the PublicAffairs Asia awards ceremony in Singapore. NXT15 is aimed at 18-25 year olds, but registrations from people outside this range will also be considered. Registrations close February 9, and are available for download here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 23rd January 2015 - 9:09am