Our movement has secured historic victories in recent years because of the passion and commitment of activists and leaders who are creating incredible change in the communities they call home.

In Wisconsin, Federation member Fair Wisconsin is working hard to connect and empower LGBT and allied leaders to advance equality in the Badger State.

Recently, Fair Wisconsin welcomed an incredible group of activists to the 2014 Wisconsin LGBT Leadership Conference. This annual conference is a partnership of Fair Wisconsin and Diverse and Resilient, Wisconsin’s statewide LGBT public health organization. This year’s event was particularly historic, as it included a Trans* Leadership Institute -- the first trans* specific training of its kind to be held in Wisconsin.

This three-day event included workshops and information sessions on everything from coalition building to supporting LGBT youth in schools to the impact of the Affordable Care Act on LGBT individuals. Guest speakers included Kylar Broadus and Causten Wollerman from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Kris Hermanns of the Pride Foundation, and Christopher Clark of Lambda Legal. 

We were able to catch up with Katie Belanger and Megin McDonell from Fair Wisconsin to hear more about this exciting and successful event.

Equality Federation: What are the goals of the Wisconsin LGBT Leadership Conference and the Trans* Leadership Institute? What’s the purpose of these events?
Fair Wisconsin: The Wisconsin LGBT Leadership Conference is the cornerstone of our efforts to build a more skilled and connected network of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and allied leaders who are empowered to achieve and protect LGBT equality in their local communities across the state of Wisconsin. We seek to engage LGBT leaders and emerging leaders, activists and allies across the state of Wisconsin to achieve and protect LGBT equality and promote community development, advocacy, and the advancement of public health.

The purpose of the Trans* Leadership Institute (T*LI) is to build a more trans* inclusive movement for equality by bringing leaders, activists, significant others, friends, families and allies together from around the state to work on creating policy, legislation and environments that are inclusive of trans* and gender non-conforming people. Trans* and gender non-conforming people are at the core of this Institute, but it is for both trans* and cisgender (non-trans*) people who want to see changes that will benefit those whose genders are trans* or non-normative.

EF: Which workshops really stood out or attracted significant attention and excitement at this year’s event?
FW: Besides the Trans* Leadership Institute, which attracted more than twice as many participants as we had initially predicted (55 in total), another popular workshop was the media training focused on "telling your story." This workshop included tips for working with the media and messaging materials that we developed with assistance from GLAAD in previous years.

EF: How has Fair Wisconsin grown participation in this event over the years?
FW: The general conference is in its third year, and each year, we have grown participation by about 25-30%. Conference participation has definitely grown over the last two years in particular, since we joined in partnership with Diverse and Resilient, a group that serves as a catalyst to help LGBT groups get started and continue to thrive by providing program funds, consultations, adult and youth leadership training, and leadership coaching. Partnering with this statewide LGBT public health organization has also helped us increase racial and economic diversity among participants.

EF: What advice would you pass on to other Federation members hoping to host an event like this?
FW: Work with a partner organization you trust and with which you have a good history of collaboration, leverage your relationships with other state and national groups to help bring in great speakers, and develop your program content early!

Congratulations to Fair Wisconsin on such a successful event, and thank you for continuing to bring LGBT leaders and allies together to fight for equality!