LGBT Media Journalists Convening Wrap-Up

This past weekend, I was a part of the LGBT Media Journalists Convening in Washington DC. It was a weekend filled with new tips on writing, media reporting, and information sharing.

The trip to DC was long but I was asleep most of the way. Friday night kicked off our conference, by arriving to cops and secret service at our hotel. As we walked up, we were told that Obama just spoke there and they were clearing the space (how cool). Our hotel was filled with members of the DNC. After that, we checked in and got ready for our reception at the AFL-CIO building.

Our keynote speaker was MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, who gave us a history lesson on DC politics and LGBT issues.

The next day was our convening, I'll give a breakdown bullet point style.

• We took a tour of the White House. My birthdate was copied wrong, so security had to hold me until it was clear. They are no joke.
• The rooms were beautiful, odd, and immaculate. However, the press room was very small.
•  Our first session was, Mythbusters: Understanding and Deconstructing The Lies of the Anti-LGBT Industry with Nathaniel Frank, Joel Silberman and Masen Davis. In this session, we learned how to effectively address Anti-gay issues online and as possible pundits. It was very cool.
• Follow that session was, What We Don't Talk About: Radical Methods For Greater Diversity In Queer Journalism with panelists Reina Gossett, Robyn Ochs and Paul Kawata. This was a great beginning to the diversity issues we have in our community. Many writers/activists shy away from these issues, however, we took some of them to task and explained why they should discuss the 'rough topics'.
  
• We also talked about Bisexuality. They are a part of our community we forget to focus on. That has to change.
• After lunch, we moved to our next session, Geek Tech: The Future Of LGBT Media with Tyler Chance and Kortney Ziegler. Here, we learned about how to gain more readers and update our blogging styles. Great session.
  
• We received pundit training, which was a humbling experience. To be a great TV pundit, you have to remain strong in your words, while being yourself. I was trying to be so professional, I came off stiff. Later on, I got better and comfortable with the camera. Maybe in the future, you will see me on CNN or MSNBC.
• And then, we really got to talking in the Airing Our Dirty Laundry: Best Practices in Airing Touchy Subjects session with panelists Mara Keisling, Darlene Nipper and Steven Thrasher. This session was the ONE. We discussed everything from accountability, race, White privilege, PrEP, and Piers Morgan. This was THE session to be a part of. I got in some good points in person and on Twitter.
  

If you are a true activist, you have to learn how to talk about race #lgbtmedia14
— wondermann5 (@wondermann5) March 1, 2014

It hurts that very few white activists called out Dan Savage for his statements about the Black community post-Prop 8 #lgbtmedia14
— wondermann5 (@wondermann5) March 1, 2014

• We did a final Q and A and then we were done after 9 hours. Later we hung out at JoeMyGod's gathering at the local gay bar, The Green Lantern. It was fun, but I think my clubbing days are over.
• On Sunday, we took a took of DC, seeing the monuments, landmarks and buildings.

In all, it was a great trip and I am always honored to be invited.