{"id":3741,"date":"2015-04-17T11:32:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T15:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=3741"},"modified":"2015-04-17T11:59:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T15:59:33","slug":"e-town-professor-students-attend-diversity-leaders-day-at-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2015\/04\/17\/e-town-professor-students-attend-diversity-leaders-day-at-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"E-town Professor, Students Attend Diversity Leaders Day at White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"milligan<\/a>Dr. Amy Milligan was invited to attend the 5th Annual Black LGBTQ Emerging Leaders Day at the White House Wednesday, March 25. The director of the National Black Justice Coalition, Sharon Lettman-Hicks, invited Milligan in recognition of her work as a diversity leader, particularly in discussing issues of race and the LGBTQ community. As part of her invitation, she was able to bring two students, Katelyn Gebbia\u201917 and Derek Burton\u201918, with her to attend the summit.<\/p>\n

Gebbia said they were invited because Lettman-Hicks came to speak at Elizabethtown College and saw the work Milligan and her students were doing on campus. \u201cShe thought it would be an amazing experience if we were able to attend,\u201d Gebbia added. The topic of the event, black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer justice, looked at the intersection of black identities with LGBTQ identities. \u201cWhile many people think racism isn\u2019t a problem anymore, it still is,\u201d Gebbia said. \u201cEspecially within other movements like the LGBTQ movement where black intersectionality often gets overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milligan said about 50 people attended the event. \u201cWe had full access to a host of speakers and officials,\u201d she said. \u201cWe met with policy makers, lobbyists, members of the National LGBTQ task force, [and] members of Obama\u2019s African Americans in Higher Education committee.\u201d Gebbia said some of the speakers wanted to convey their own messages and teach others to do the best work they can, and some speakers were there to learn how they can make their organizations more LGBTQ and black friendly. \u201cThe speakers were all eloquent, educated and willing to learn from what student leaders like ourselves are doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During Emerging Leaders Day attendees discussed several important topics. Milligan, Gebbia and Burton attended a panel to discuss national policy surrounding HIV\/AIDS. \u201cWe were actually interviewed by the Testing Makes Us Stronger campaign,\u201d she said. Milligan and the students also attended panels about digital activism, LGBTQ public policy and important intersections of race, sexuality and gender identity\/expression. \u201cThe event recognized us as national leaders in working to bring about change and helped to empower us and educate us on ways that we can continue to give voice to our communities,\u201d Milligan said.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s really important that we start seeing, recognizing and talking about the intersection of these identities more often.”<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gebbia said these topics should be at the forefront of social justice discussions. \u201cWithin the black social justice movement, LGBTQ identifying people are often ignored or forgotten, while the LGBTQ social justice movement is largely led by white people,\u201d she added. \u201cSo black LGBTQ people are often lost somewhere in the background.\u201d Events, such as Emerging Leaders Day, bring together national leaders to work for specifically black LGBTQ people and shape and direct policies. Gebbia said societal stereotypes cause many people to believe all LGBTQ people are white and no black people are LGBTQ, which is not true. \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we start seeing, recognizing and talking about the intersection of these identities more often,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The opportunity to be in the same room as some high-power officials such as Megan Smith (chief technology officer, the highest ranking out LGBTQ White House staff member) and Hayden Mora (deputy chief of staff for the Human Rights Campaign) was very empowering and educational for her, Gebbia said. \u201cAs some of the youngest people in the room, it was sometimes overwhelming to see all that the others had accomplished,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it also gave me hope to someday have some accomplishments as immense as theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milligan said she was proud to have been able to bring two undergraduate students with her to the event. \u201cI\u2019m excited that they could be exposed to these ideas and continue to build themselves as leaders,\u201d she added. Gebbia said the organizers of this event had very special connections to the Federal government, giving Milligan, Gebbia and Burton the opportunity to experience a national briefing. \u201cNot just anyone can get into the White House,\u201d Gebbia said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you can just reserve a room \u2026 and meet there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing recognized in this way and being able to engage in these conversations at a national level reaffirms my own personal commitments to social justice activism and to support students as we work to build the next generation of leaders,\u201d Milligan said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Amy Milligan was invited to attend the 5th Annual Black LGBTQ Emerging Leaders Day at the White House Wednesday, March 25. The director of the National Black Justice Coalition, Sharon Lettman-Hicks, invited Milligan in recognition of her work as a diversity leader, particularly in discussing issues of race and the LGBTQ community. As part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":3754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[775,7],"tags":[173,227,61],"class_list":["post-3741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-campus-community","tag-amy-milligan","tag-lgbtq","tag-women-and-gender-studies","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3741"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3741\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}