Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of A Better Normal, our ongoing series in which we envision the future as trauma-informed.
LGBTQ+ Identity and Race in the US: An Intersectional Discussion On Historical and Generational Trauma
With Panelists Rev. Dr. D. Mark Wilson and Alexander Cho, Ph.D., Moderated by ACEs Connection staff members Jenna Quinn and Alison Cebulla
Friday, June 19th, 2020
Noon to 1pm, PT (3pm to 4pm ET)
Please join us in honoring both Pride Month and Juneteenth in this intersectional discussion with two experts on LGBTQ+ Identity and Race in the US. We will be launching our new LGBTQ+ ACEs Connection Community this week.
"The month of June was chosen for LGBT Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact LGBT people have had in the world." ("Gay Pride", wikipedia.org)
"Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863." ("History of Juneteenth", Juneteenth.com)
Please join our ACEs & African Americans community here.
Discussion will strive to include the following topics (time permitting):
- What do people need to know about the historical and generational trauma at the intersection of being a person of color and LGBTQ+ in the United States?
- What is the path forward to healing?
- What changes have you seen already in your lifetimes? What needs to change?
- Digital/social media use (positives and negatives) for queer people of color
- Interdependence vs individualism
- Black lives were never meant to matter: a history
- Historical movements: The Black Power Movement in the 1960s, the Black Consciousness and Arts Movement while at Howard University, a black college, in the 1970s-1980s, The Black Gay Literary Movement and Afro-Centric Hip Hop Movement of the 1980s-1990s
- White privilege and entitlement; white shame and guilt
- Whiteness, race, and the LGBTQ+ community
- African American and black churches and homophobia
- Recognizing the contributions of LGBTQ+ people to the African American church
Rev. Dr. D. Mark Wilson is an African American clergyperson ordained in the American Baptist Churches, USA, the former Senior Pastor of McGee Avenue Baptist Church (Berkeley), where he served for twelve years. He earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University, his Masters of Divinity Degree from Harvard Divinity School and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He is the current Director of Music at Easter Hill United Methodist Church and the former Assistant Professor of Congregational Leadership at the Pacific School of Religion. In additional to his work as a pastor, he is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology Department at St. Mary’s College of Moraga, California and Continuing Lecturer in the Music Department of University of California at Berkeley, where he conducts the UC Berkeley Gospel Chorus. In addition to creating courses on race, ethnicity, gender and LGBTQ equality at St. Mary’s College of Moraga, Dr. Wilson has used musical performance to create diversity and global justice throughout the community and world in Cuba, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. When he’s not sharing music around the world, he can be heard singing in the bass section and performing solos in the Cantare Con Vivo Chorale, directed by David Morales. Pastor Mark, as he is affectionately known to church members, is the Bay Area’s first African American pastor to come out as a gay man in a Bay Area African American Baptist Church and to be welcomed and embraced by the church’s membership. He has also been an early leader of the Welcoming and Affirming Movement to affirm LGBTIQ people in the Baptist faith community. He is a member of City of Refuge United Church of Christ and former Outreach Coordinator for the Project Trust Collaboration of San Francisco Theological Seminary and Kaiser Hospital, addressing spirituality and mental health.
Alexander Cho, Ph.D., is an expert in LGBTQ youth digital media use, race and ethnicity, and digital design. He is the University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow in Informatics at UC Irvine and incoming Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He is co-author of "The Digital Edge: How Black and Latino Youth Navigate Digital Inequality" (NYU Press) and co-editor of the forthcoming "a tumblr book: Platform and Cultures" (University of Michigan Press). He is active in policy and advocacy settings, most recently working with UNICEF as lead author of the report "Digital Civic Engagement by Young People." Prior to his academic work, Alex was a journalist and editor, including publishing the worldwide exclusive coming-out interview with Star Trek icon George Takei. Website.
Equity & Inclusion Statement
ACEs Connection is an anti-racist organization committed to the pursuit of social justice.
In our work to promote resilience and prevent and mitigate ACEs, we will intentionally embrace and uplift people who have historically not had a seat at the table. ACEs Connection will celebrate the voices and tell the stories of people who have been barred from decision making and who have shouldered the burden of systemic and economic oppression as the result of genocide, slavery, family separation, forced relocation, mass incarceration, red lining and all other practices, policies and institutions that have traumatized marginalized groups. These groups include people of color, people living with mental health and substance use challenges, people living with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQI community.
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