Gender PAC’s 5th National Conference on Gender and 10th National Gender Lobby Day are coming up (May 20 – May 22, 2005).

Click here for all the info you need.

Values & Vision:

The National Conference on Gender (NCG) is offered to help bring together all the different communities and identities that have a common interest in ending discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes.

This means we value individual identity, as well as bringing people together across boundaries of expertise, experience, and community. For those of us used to working and organizing within our own groups, here are some suggestions you might want to consider when attending NCG.

* Many different people are attending NCG and not all of us will know about every other person’s experiences. Let’s take the risk, and the time, to educate each other about the different impacts of gender in our lives.
* “I Don’t Feel Safe, Because of You:” Each of us needs to feel safe, but each of us is also responsible for our own safety. Unless someone threatens you physically or is overtly hostile, please think twice about using issues of safety or victimhood to close down debate.
* Hierarchies of Oppression: “I have it a lot worse than you do.” Ranking and comparing oppressions usually just leaves everyone feeling disrespected or misunderstood, and usually does nothing to solve our common problems and bring us together. Please think twice about comparing your pain to someone else’s. And try not to assume that anyone else hasn’t paid a heavy price to be who and what they are and to bring their particular gifts into this world.
* Privilege: All of us walk around in one cocoon of privilege or another. Some of us have some gender privilege, but not race. Others have race but not gender or class. Introducing the argument of privilege can be used to illuminate as well as to diminish. Please make sure you use it in a way that doesn’t overlook the price each of us has paid to survive.
* Generalizations: Generalizations, such as, “You straight white males just don’t get it” are something we all use and we’re usually wrong, because none of us is merely the sum of our group. We’re all individuals and want to be recognized as such. Please think twice before making statements about “all straight people,” or “all trans men,” or about demonizing any one group.
* Representation: Look at who’s in your workshops. If you see someone you think is the “only one” in the room, please consider that maybe their voice needs to be extra-heard. And think about who’s not in the room, and which voices are not heard.
* Gender Rights and “Gender Transgression:” Gender oppression is not only about “transgressing” gender norms. It’s also about a 4-year old jock-in-training who finds herself forced into pigtails and skirts; a quiet, artistic boy who is beat up in the boy’s locker room; or a lesbian femme sexually assaulted and then blamed for wearing a short skirt and tight sweater. At some time in our lives, almost all of us have been harassed, shamed, or made to feel afraid because we don’t meet someone’s ideal of a “real man” or a “real woman.” Gender rights are for those of us who transcend narrow gender stereotypes, but they’re also human rights, and they’re for all of us.

Click here for another not to be missed upcoming gender event.