About 600 delegates from around the world will gather in Long Beach next week for a biannual conference talking about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex human rights in their countries.
The conference’s organizer is ILGA World, a federation of more than 1,700 organizations globally that campaign for LGBTQ rights; the federation is in more than 160 countries. The ILGA World conference — the federation’s first in-person event since the pandemic began — is from Monday, May 2, to Friday, May 6.
“They originally were coming here two years ago,” event spokesman Andy Perez said. “Long Beach is a convenient location, and has a great reputation for its LGBTQ history.
“It’s quite a compliment,” Perez added. “People are coming from all over the world, literally, and will see what’s going on here. To be in a place like Long Beach where it is so visible that LGBTQ people matter — that’s inspirational.”
The It Gets Better Project, a global nonprofit headquartered in Los Angeles and focused on connecting and helping LGBTQ youth, will host next week’s conference, the theme of which is “LGBTIQ youth: future present change.”
The increasing rate of anti-LGBTQ legislation will also be a major topic, according to organizers.
“People around the world still face violence and discrimination because of whom they love, how they look and present, or because their bodies are seen as different,” Co-Secretaries General Luz Elena Aranda and Tuisina Ymania Brown said in a release. “Often laws and legislation do not protect our communities but exclude and deprive them of their human rights. In 2022 there have been more than 240 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation proposed in the United States alone.
“The reality for most of the world,” they added, “is that every piece of anti-LGBTQ legislation enacted in one country sets a precedent for other governments and hate groups to push for — and to adopt — similar legislation.”
Both Aranda and Brown will be keynote speakers during Monday’s opening session. Other speakers are Brian Wenke, executive director of the It Gets Better Project, and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.
This conference will be at the Westin Long Beach in downtown. Many of the attendees will be in the United States or California for the first time, according to the release, and this is the first ILGA World Conference to take place in the country since 2001.
Long Beach has ranked high on inclusivity indexes and is led by an openly gay mayor.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome the World ILGA Conference to our great city next week,” Garcia said in a statement. “We are proud that the conference team chose to hold this extremely important and unique conference here in Long Beach, where we pride ourselves on inclusivity, advocating for equality — and being home to one of the most visible and historically significant LGBTQ+ communities anywhere in the world.
“As our city’s first openly gay mayor, I’m excited for the conference attendees to get to experience our city,” Garcia said, “and know it will be a very productive experience.”
In-person registration is closed. But the public can still participate online by attending all plenary sessions, as well as some key sessions on ILGA World’s platform. The cost is $30 and the deadline to register is noon Sunday, May 1. Go to worldconference.ilga.org/register-now.
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