PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Take The Last Bite

In 2022, we wrapped up season one and also completed seasons two and three for a total of 19 episodes across the year. We delved into many incredible conversations and found ways to showcase other programs and initiatives of the Institute through the podcast. For example, in season three we discussed the MBLGTACC 2022 planning process with student planners and debriefed the event among staff while still on-site in Columbus.

Across seasons two and three, our team recorded “small bites” about Trans Day of Visibility and year-end recaps, discussing things we did that we didn’t imagine we could. Our board president Stephanie Skora got on the mic to discuss one of her other hats– the Girl, I Guess progressive voter guide and R.B. offered a deepdive tracking the patterns that led up to the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs.

Some additional guests of note include:

• CUEE WRIGHT, a Black trans musician who discussed his move into music full-time

• COLTAN SCHOENIKE and ASHER WICKELL, family & marriage therapists practicing in rural Wisconsin and Kansas

• ERIN MAYE QUADE and ABENA ABRAHAM, reproductive justice advocates from Gender Justice and UnRestrict Minnesota

This platform has become a promising outlet for highlighting queer and trans justice work in the region and we continue to see incremental growth in our listenership. Throughout 2022, we accrued 758 downloads and listens—nearly double the listens and downloads compared to 2021. We aim to grow this listenership with new outreach and marketing tools as we prepare for season four.

Queer Policy Talk

The historical roots and impact of race, gender, and sexuality shape public policy as both a disciplinary field and as a course of action.

This year we renewed our collaboration with the University of Michigan’s topranked Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Together with the Ford School and its Center for Racial Justice, the Institute

TRANS(GENDER) JUSTICE TEACH-IN

The 6th annual Trans(Gender) Justice Teach-In was hosted virtually via livestream on December 6 2022. This free event was themed “Trans Fat: Large Lessons from Large Trans Folks” and featured panelists

Dr. JON PAUL HIGGINS, TK MORTON and SHANE SMOORE with R.B BROOKS as moderator.

Key talking points discussed by this panel include:

• how fatness interplays with gender

• experiences of fat trans and nonbinary people in health, welcomed Dr. BIANCA D.M. WILSON and Dr. CELESTE WATKINS-HAYES in conversation around the racial foundations of LGBT rights.

The hour-long discussion covered major areas and themes of current research related to queer and trans people of color, poverty, system-involved youth, and more.

WATCH RECORDING sgdinstitute.org/programs/ queer-policy pandemic, protest, and other circumstances of our current moment

• moving beyond self-love and into a liberated future

WATCH RECORDING sgdinstitute.org/programs/ transgender-justice

Thirty Years Of Mblgtacc

30th Annual Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference

For MBLGTACC 2022, the Institute collaborated with an incredible team of student leaders to plan and implement the 30th annual conference in Columbus, Ohio the weekend of Oct. 21-23. With the theme “Limitless: Queer Activism of the Future.”

As we entered into the second year of hosting the conference in the Fall, we were cautiously optimistic about starting to rebound from the initial onset of the pandemic and retained a virtual component to the conference experience to heighten availability of the content for those still avoiding travel and/or in-person spaces.

We introduced “workshop tracks” into the conference program this year, which curate workshop experiences with express attention to rural communities, self- and communitycare, activism, media, campus organizing, and advisor sessions. Andy, director of technology, designed a workshop review tool to initiate a more efficient and centralized process for reviewing workshop submissions and an improved user experience for workshop presenters.

Keynotes this year were SCHUYLER BAILAR and IMANI BARBARIN and entertainment featured HAYDEN KRISTAL and a drag show.

Another new programming component was the introduction of a Maker Market featuring queer and trans artists and creators and “creation stations” such as bead crafts, tote bag decorating, and a community mural banner. We were also able to offer on-site drop-in counseling services to attendees.