Palmerston North will host this year's national queer students' conference, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of homosexual law reform. Entitled "Forward Movements – Sideways Glances", the conference will be held at the Massey University College of Education on 8-9 July. UniQ is a support network for non-heterosexual students, which operates at many tertiary institutions around the country. "With University often being the first time away from home for many young people, it's often the setting where non-heterosexual students first come out of the closet and begin to accept themselves for who they are," says Massey's UniQ. The conference is held in a different city each year and provides an opportunity for New Zealand's LGBT youth to converge, network and hear speakers on a variety of topics – from spirituality to politics, law, history and gender issues, among many things. Seth Winn, conference coordinator says Sunday July 9th will have special significance as the anniversary of law reform. "We chose the conference title Forward Movements – Sideways Glances to capture the specific moment we occupy in queer history. Our issues are in the global political and cultural arena like never before, with our country taking its own steps toward equality with things like Law Reform and the Civil Union Bill already passed, and things like the Out There youth project and the Gender Identity Bill gaining momentum." This year's speakers will include transgender MP Georgina Beyer, coordinator of the Out There programme Nathan Brown, Chris Coles of Asexuality Aotearoa New Zealand and American LGBT rights activist Caite Grieshop. The conference will be opened with the All Tied Up costume party on Friday the 7th at Club Q. The theme is to wear a tie, and prizes will be given for best costume. The "Sideways Glances" part of the title "refers not only to the mixture of acceptance and rejection with which we are met, but also as an invitation to look around us and to take stock of how much we've achieved," says Winn. University students wishing to attend are encouraged to contact their local UniQ group or visit http://www.uniq.org.nz/ or email uniq@musa.org.nz for further details.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 14th June 2006 - 12:00pm