This weekend I’ll be in Philadelphia joining dozens of my fellow LGBT bloggers, writers, authors, and activists at the 2013 LGBT Media Journalists Convening, generously sponsored by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and funded by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Bil Browning, founder of The Bilerico Project, will be our host.
I’m really looking forward to seeing some great friends and colleagues, and meeting a good many people whose byline, Twitter avatar, email address, or voice-on-the-phone is usually our only contact.
Via our host, Bil Browning:
This year’s convening is focusing on coalition building. We’ll have presentations on immigration reform, international issues, the aging queer community, transgender-specific issues, and the labor movement. Philadelphia Mayor Nutter will address the group during lunch on Saturday while Cleve Jones and David Mixner will do a Q&A session at Friday night’s reception and dinner.
It’s been exciting to see how the convening has grown since I hosted the first one four years ago. This will be our biggest group of bloggers, editors, and journalists I’ve invited and I’m really proud of how diverse the group will be this year. We have the top folks in the field coming this year – and we really reflect our community. Most of the top gay blogs are run by white guys and a huge portion of our community newspapers too. I’m hoping that some of the introductions made this week will lead to a larger inclusiveness of some of the smaller voices as sources for the big guys.
Bil also posted this alphabetical list of attendees:
David Badash (New Civil Rights Movement)
Matthew Bajko (Bay Area Reporter)
Matt Baume (Gay Marriage Watch)
Andrew Belonsky (Towleroad)
Trish Bendix (AfterEllen)
Sarah Blazucki (NLGJA board member)
Lester Braithwaite (Queerty/GayCities)
Bil Browning (Bilerico Project)
Sean Bugg (Metroweekly)
Kelli Busey (PlanetTransgender)
Faith Cheltanham (BiNetUSA)
Jen Christensen (NLGJA board president)
Jen Colletta (Philly Gay News)
Matt Comer (Q Notes)
Laura Douglas-Brown (GA Voice)
Andres Duque (Blabbeando)
Kevin Farrell (Unicorn Booty)
Zack Ford (ThinkProgress)
Chris Geidner (Buzzfeed)
EJ Graff (American Prospect)
Lucas Grindley (The Advocate)
Jeremy Hooper (Good As You)
Andy Humm (Gay USA)
Ben Jenkins (Between the Lines)
Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God.)
Ileana Jimenez (Feminist Teacher)
Rebecca Juro (Rebecca Juro Show)
Ed Kennedy (AfterElton)
Sue Kerr (Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondants)
Mark King (My Fabulous Disease)
Jamillah King (Colorlines)
Shaun Knittel (Seattle Gay News)
Will Kohler (Back2Stonewall)
Michael Lavers (Washington Blade)
Rod McCollum (Rod 2.0)
Noah Michelson (Huffington Post)
David Mixner (DavidMixner.com)
Grace Moon (Velvet Park)
Ann Northrop (Gay USA)
Sue O’Connell (Bay Windows)
Jason Parsley (South Florida Gay News)
Eric Resnick (Gay People’s Chronicle)
Monica Roberts (Transgriot)
Mike Rogers (RawStory)
Erin Rook (PQ Monthly)
Matthew Rose (NLGJA)
Steve Rothaus (Miami Herald)
Dana Rudolph (Mombian)
Paul Schindler (Gay City News)
Mark Segal (Philadelphia Gay News)
Aishah Shahidah Simmons (Filmmaker)
Kate Sosin (Windy City Times)
Adele Stan (Alternet)
David Stern (Frontiers)
Angela Thomas (Philly Gay News)
Jos Truitt (Feministing)
Michael Tune (NLGJA Executive Director)
Jose Antonio Vargas (Define American)
Daniel Villareal (gay.net)
Rex Wockner (Freelance)
Scott Wooledge (Daily Kos)
If there’s anyone you’d like me to reach out to or any questions you’d like me to ask, send me a tweet, and use hashtag #LGBTmedia13 — and follow that this weekend for all the updates from the conference!
By the way, we’ll still have plenty of great content, including our regular columns, for you this weekend, so be sure to stop by!