What I'd Like To See At Netroots Nation 2013

It's been almost a week since I was part of that historic trans panel at Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence and in the room for the LGBT pre-conference event that was a week ago today. 

I'm still sorting through the e-mail from the people I met, the conversations we started, pondering some offers and invitations, and fleshing out the parameters of some of the commitments I made on behalf of myself and the African-American trans community during the event.

I'm following up on many of those and want to make them happen. 

It was announced on Sunday that Netroots Nation 2013 will be held June 20-23 on the West Coast for the first time in the history of the event in San Jose, CA and they are expecting 3000 people to attend.  Of course I enjoyed my first timer experience in Providence so much I'm seriously thinking about being in the house at the San Jose Convention Center if my schedule allows it to happen.

But lets presume I'm standing there as an attendee, a panelist, or a speaker a year from now. and I'm checking in at the desk to get my credentials and my Netroots Nation 2013 programming guide.

What would the TransGriot like to see in terms of some of the panel discussions being offered at NN13 to the huddled liberal-progressive masses yearning to breathe free from conservatism?

You know I've been pondering this, and I'm about to share some of those thoughts with you.

One of the things I'd love to see, and I kicked this idea around in Providence with Viktor, Pam Spaulding and Alvin McEwen is a Black LGBT bloggers panel to discuss some of the issues and challenges we face in the liberal progressive blogosphere..

I'd also like to see multiple trans specific panels spread throughout the convention calendar and that sentiment was echoed by my fellow trans panelists as well.

One of the panels that is definitely needed is a trans POC only panel.  One of the things that bothered me with this Netroots Nation 2012 one I was cognizant of is we didn't have a trans Latina on this panel or a trans man, and before I left Houston I reached out to trans Latinas to ask what issues I needed to bring to the table during this 90 minute discussion.   Immigration and police harassment were the ones that came up, and we did get to discuss both.

Speaking of trans men, there needs to be a trans men only panel that allows them to discuss the issues unique to them and interpret trans human rights events from a transmasculine perspective.  

I'd like to see trans people discussing issues not specifically part of the rainbow community on different panels throughout the Netroots Nation programming blocks in the various communities we intersect and interact with.

I also want to see trans people as moderators of panels or even keynote speakers leading the discussions.

If we have an LGBT pre-conference event in San Jose like we did in Providence, I'd like to see some of the discussion time during that day long event geared toward the issues of transfolks and TBLG people of color so we can continue to have those honest discussions and formulate better policy in our rainbow community movement..

Well folks, we have a year to make it happen.  Y'all know my e-mail address and some of you lucky peeps have my phone number.  So let's get busy making it happen.