Since 1995, six lawsuits have been successfully brought against Louisiana for voter discrimination. Louisiana has had twenty-one requests for changes to its voting-laws denied by the federal government under the preclearance mandate of the Voting Rights Act, which, prior to the 2012 Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby v. Holder, required federal review of voting-law changes for any state or jurisdiction that had been deemed to have a history of egregious voting discrimination practices. Despite the Supreme Court’s insistence that voting discrimination is a thing of the past, plenty of evidence exists to the contrary.
The panelists will discuss their expert opinions regarding the effect of the decision in Shelby v. Holder, gerrymandering in Louisiana, and how the legacies of race discrimination in voting continue to have consequences for our state today.
Panelists:
Chris Tyson, Associate Professor of Law, LSU Law Center
Dr. Roland Mitchell, Associate Professor of Higher Education Administration, LSU
Alfreda Tillman Bester, General Counsel for NAACP Louisiana
State Representative Patricia Haynes Smith, District 67
Moderated by Jim Engster
Geaux Red is the annual HIV/AIDS awareness event in honor of World AIDS Day hosted by the LGBTQ Project in the LSU Office of Multicultural Affairs and Spectrum at LSU. A 2011 Louisiana Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 25% of Louisiana students never received formal sexual education regarding HIV or AIDS prevention.
WEAR RED on December 1 for World AIDS day!
LSU AIDS QUILT PROJECT
December 1, 2014
6pm-8pm at the African American Cultural
Honor our past and better our future–be a part of the start of LSU’s very first AIDS awareness and memorial quilt! We’ll provide the supplies, you provide the creativity.
History of the original AIDS Memorial Quilt:
In June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Today the Quilt is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic. More than 48,000 individual 3-by-6-foot memorial panels — most commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS — have been sewn together by friends, lovers and family members.
GET TESTED
December 2, 2014
12pm-2pm at the African American Cultural
HIV/AIDS Alliance for Region Two (HAART) is offering free HIV oral testing – no blood, no needles.
Join the USDA for a day-long discussion on the needs of the LGBT community in rural America and the policy changes under the Obama administration that have helped to address some of the vulnerabilities of rural LGBT people and families.
Register online.
Event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be served.
Questions? Please contact us at LGBTRuralSummit@ascr.usda.gov
Bring your family, bring your friends, bring anyone you know, and take action for equality with others in your community!
Together with Capital City Alliance, Baton Rouge Pride Fest, MCC Baton Rouge, PFLAG Baton Rouge and Spectrum, Equality Louisiana (EQLA), the statewide coalition of LGBT and allied advocacy groups, will host a free workshop open to everyone in the Greater Baton Rouge area.
**The event will take place in the large meeting room on the second floor for the Barnes and Noble at LSU.
EQLA’s Community Connects are a great opportunity to learn about state-level LGBT-related legislation coming up in the 2015 legislative session that will begin April 13. We will discuss the big issues faced by our community and the different ways we can all advocate for LGBT people, no matter how hectic our schedules are.
We want everyone to leave ready to make your voice heard.
EQLA will be traveling all over the state in the coming weeks, so look for a Community Connect event near you if you are not in the Baton Rouge area.
Spectrum and Equality Louisiana are proud to present the 2015 Louisiana Queer Conference, the largest student-run LGBTQ conference in the South, with the support of Louisiana Trans Advocates, Capital City Alliance, Qroma, the LSU Office of Multicultural Affairs, and LSU Student Government!
All students and community members are welcome to join us on March 14 for workshops, caucus sessions, an update on the state of the LGBTQ movement in Louisiana, a fantastic keynote address, and a panel of queer student leaders from across the state.
Throughout the conference, we will reflect on this year’s theme, “Bold Not Broken: Queer Resilience in the South,” which centers the work of queer Southern activists that have lived, worked, and built lives here for decades in the face of a growing national narrative–that the South has been an “impossible” place to organize and is now the new frontier for LGBTQ activism.
Online registration is open now at http://www.laqueerconference.org/register.
The cost is free with your LSU ID, $5 with a non-LSU college ID, and $10 for all other attendees.
The Louisiana Queer Conference provides leadership development, networking opportunities, and social support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) college students and their allies in Louisiana. The conference provides an annual venue for individuals to discuss ideas and collaborate on projects, while building a statewide network to advance the LGBTQ movement.
The conference will be followed by Queer Prom.
Schedule of Events
| 8:15 am | Registration Opens |
| 9:00 | Conference Welcome |
| 9:15 | Community Panel |
| 10:20 | Workshop Session 1 |
| 11:10 | Lunch & Networking |
| 12:30 pm | Student Leader Panel |
| 1:30 | Workshop Session 2 |
| 2:30 | Workshop Session 3 |
| 3:30 | Keynote Address |
| 4:30 | Equality Louisiana Awards |
| 8-11 | Queer Prom |
Workshops
Session 1 (10:20 – 11:10)
Paul R. Baier – Same-Gender Marriage in the Courts
Joe Melcher – What PFLAG Can Do for You
Liam Lair – Making Spaces Sae and Affirming for Trans*/GNC Folks!
Sara Pic – Exploring and Preserving Our Disappearing Histories
Destiny Billiot – (A)sex Ed
Jacqueline Wilson – Addressing the Needs of LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care
Elizabeth Jenkins – Trans 101
Session 2 (1:30 – 2:20)
Dr. Elena Castro – Queering Academia: Legacies, Conversations, and Movements
Tucker Barry – Making the Grade: a Toolkit for LGBTQ Students to Create Change on Campus
Megan Gilliam – Meet Me at the Intersection
Clyde Jones Jr. – HIV 101
Brandon McWilliams – Running on Empty
Joshua Mesman – Queer Jesus
BreakOUT! – Get Yr Rights (Part 1)
Session 3 (2:30 – 3:20)
Eric Evans – HIV Criminalization and PrEP School Because You Can Never Be Too Safe!
Andrea Rubin – Legal Updates and Discussion
Dr. Donald Hoppe – Our Place at the Table: LGBTQ Spirituality
Courtney Murr – Breaking BInaries
Peter Jenkins – Campus Organizing Tactics
Montgomery Mewers – Campus Trans*formation
BreakOUT! – Get Yr Rights (Part 2)
Join Capital City Alliance on Sunday, April 17th for its first ever Big Gay Movie Night! Splash Nightclub will open their doors (and bar) at 6pm and the movie will start at 7pm. CCA will have snacks available for purchase. Chairs will be provided.
Our featured movie will be To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar! To Wong Foo features Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo as three drag queens that travel cross-country until their car breaks down, leaving them stranded in a small town.
Admission is FREE (but CCA will be accepting donations at the door)!