2018 Workshop Description

Queering Survival Skills with So Sinopoulous-Lloyd and Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd

Queer Nature is devoted to building relationship with the other-than-human world through earth-based ancestral and “survival” skills. We seek to explore what such skills have to offer queer people, and also, how queer people can transform “wilderness” culture and cisheteropatriarchal/colonial narratives about nature through engagement with such skills. We have discovered that learning low-tech ature-based skills together in a queer, trauma-informed container is a powerful way to take belonging and survival into our own hands in a very literal and practical way. Not only is this a form of resistance, but it is a creative act of cultural emergence.

A Short Queer History of Land Champions with Charlotte Overby and Alex Carr Johnson

Two rural Coloradoans - who are currently working to protect public lands, defend against rampant energy development, and build up their own communities - are going to take you on a visual and story-focused journey through a queer history of public lands conservation. Who are some of the people who helped protect many of America’s greatest landscapes? What impact did they have on our understanding of “nature” and the “outdoors”? How might their stories energize queer creativity, passion, and commitment as we continue to protect parks, monuments, and all the lands that belong to you and me?

Cultivating Gender Inclusion in the Outdoors with B Freas and rebekah foster

This session is for anyone that works with people! The outdoor industry has long been a cisgender male dominated space, and if we hope to broaden the variety of people participating in these nature-based activities, it is imperative that we begin welcoming and affirming folks of all genders. This work requires moving from superficial efforts to proactively creating space for marginalized people to feel invited and comfortable in the outdoors. This session will offer vocabulary, opportunities for reflection and discussion, as well as tools for how to apply gender inclusive best practices in the field.

LGBTQ Conservation Crew and Their Makings with Darian Lightfoot

In October 2018 I will have been involved with two field seasons supporting the pilot LGBTQ crew with Northwest Youth Corps and six seasons in the conservation corps world. This presentation will explore what I have learned throughout my time in the outdoor industry and how intertwining a militaristic, male dominated, field with young proud queer kids comes with great challenges and even greater opportunities.

Using Coalition Building to Promote Safe Spaces with Mariah Davis Jeremy Browning Ryan Fikes

During this workshop, participants will learn how to foster deeper connections amongst non-profit and community organizations who strive to promote equitability and equality. Participants will learn new techniques to promote inclusivity in their work environments and share best practices used for community building. Breakout sessions topics will include challenges in the workplace, barriers for meaningful engagement, and breakthrough opportunities that promote space spaces for LGBTQ people. This workshop will inspire conservation leaders to cultivate inclusive environments that support all people working in the outdoor industry.

LGBTQ Wilderness Medicine with Colleen McHugh

Moving through outdoor spaces requires a basic understanding of wilderness medicine and how to respond to medical emergencies in a wilderness context. In addition to existing barriers to the outdoors, many LGBTQ individuals face barriers to attaining wilderness medicine education and discrimintation in access to health care or emergency services . In this workshop we will explore relevant topics of transgender/gender non-confirming medicine in a wilderness context, including inclusive medical screening, medical assessment, and advocacy in wilderness medical emergencies.

Trouble in Paradise: Navigating Toxic Masculinity, Queerphobia and Cultural Bias in the Outdoor Industry with Dani Pungello

Those of us who work in the outdoors industry are privileged to have jobs doing what we love, but many people have difficulty finding their place in the industry due to cultural biases at many outdoors companies and communities including toxic masculinity, homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, ageism, elitism, and rape culture. In this session, we will come together in solidarity to share our experiences dealing with these issues and develop strategies for personal resiliency in the face of toxic outdoors subcultures and for supporting inclusive attitudes and policies in our organizations.

How to Create A National Park - Stonewall and Beyond with Chad lord

Participants will learn: 1. options for how new National Park Service units can be created, 2. the types of documentation that is needed to maximize support for creating new parks 3. how to build power to support new park campaigns 4. Specific examples of successful campaigns, including the Stonewall National Monument NPS site in NYC.

Participants will engage in discussions about ways to maximize new National Park Service unit campaigns and brainstorm new ideas for park units that could celebrate LGBTQ history In the United States.

Blue Discharges or How the US Army Accidentally Helped Create Queer Identity and Community in America with Mike Gallant

This workshop will focus on the story of Blue Discharges, a type of administrative discharge that was given to homosexual soldiers during World War Two. While attempting to root out homosexuality from its ranks, the US Army used this quick administrative discharge to streamline a process it no longer had the time or manpower to complete. The purging efforts not only helped queer people find each other and build communities, but also helped lay critical foundations for the gay rights movement as it inadvertently brought the concept of gay identity to the American Masses, including queer people themselves. This story will serve as a jumping off point for a broader conversation about identity and the cultural forces that can shape the way we think of ourselves.

Outward Bound California - LGBTQ 2018 Wilderness to Urban expedition with OBCA Staff

During this workshop participants will learn about the history of LGBTQ courses at Outward Bound and discuss the recent LGBTQ+ Wilderness to Urban expedition, the first of its kind at Outward Bound California. Participants will hear first hand from instructors from the course about the experience and instructing recommendations. This workshop will be both informative and interactive. 

Community forum on queer community and the outdoors

This session will occur throughout the Summit and offer a space for attendees to discuss, create and reflect on the connection between queer individuals and the outdoors and how we continue to cultivate a pathway to equity between the two.