For those interested in LGBT workplace issues, the Out & Equal Summit is an opportunity to gather, network and share ideas about how to advance LGBT inclusion in workplace.
The conference runs from September 14 - 16... this year from Chicago.
This diary will be my thoughts and recollections from the sessions, workshops and other interactions along the way.
Out & Equal site
DAY ONE
Well, actually day 2 for many of us who came a day early to meet as our company group -- and get our exhibit space set up.
First impressions, the Hyatt Chicago is HUGE... and the meeting rooms and exhibit hall space sprawls over several floors...
And it's crowded with LGBT folks (and allies)... official attendance is somewhere upwards of 1500 people. Talk about growth... the first O&E conference I attended was in Orlando five years ago. I think total attendance was 400 at most.
Opening Session -- after the usual housekeeping, the session sponsor was introduced: Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK). The GSK researcher who discovered AZT, an out-lesbian and leader of their employee group, gave a moving talk about her experience before turning it back to their VP who then introduced George Takei.
A bit rambling talk -- punctuated with trekky jokes -- but got really serious as he talked about his experiences growing up in an internment camp in Arkansas during WWII.
Killer lines (as best as I can remember):
America is at its best when the forces that seek to expand equality and freedom struggle against and win against those who seek a smaller view of humanity.
During WWII, I (Takei) was forced -- by laws enacted out of fear and prejudice -- to live behind physical barriers of bardbed wire with machine guns pointed towards us... today, there are those who use fear and prejudice to make a legal framework as restrictive as barbed wire for LGBT people who simply want to be treated equally...
(More to come in the comments section.)