Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference

The Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC), is an annual conference held to promote leadership, activism, networking, diversity, health, and empowerment among gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and allied students, staff, and faculty around the United States and Canada.

It is the largest regional queer college conference in North America and was founded by Ian Kenny.

It is also commonly referred to as the Big Gay Conference or as the Alphabet Soup Conference.

Conference Goals
The goals of the conference are to:


 * Provide a safe and supportive forum for discourse about diverse issues of interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, and allied (LGBTQQIA+) collegians, staff, and faculty;
 * Educate participants about HIV/AIDS prevention, building activism, sexuality, and gender;
 * Examine the relationship between sexism, racism, classism, ageism, ableism, and homophobia;
 * Foster localized, grassroots networking among LGBTQQIA collegians, staff, and faculty; and
 * Promote visibility of LGBTQQIA individuals and organizations throughout the Midwest.

Oversight Committee
At the 2007 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an oversight committee was established. The committee consists of members representing the current conference, the previous year's conference, and the following year's conference, as well as delegates from each US state represented at the conference and Canada. The committee meets at each conference and through a series of tele-conferences throughout the year.

Brief History

 * 1991: MBLGTACC was first conceived at a conference in Des Moines, Iowa.


 * 1992: An organizing conference took place at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas.


 * 1993: The 1st annual Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay College Conference took place at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.


 * 1998: The conference was renamed the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender College Conference.


 * 2001: The conference was renamed the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference.

MBLGTACC 2016: Introspection at the Crossroads
MBLGTACC 2016 will be hosted by students from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana on February 19–21, 2016.

MBLGTACC 2017: United in Solidarity
MBLGTACC 2017 will be hosted by the Coalition of Chicago Queer & Allied Students in Chicago, Illinois.

MBLGTACC 2018: All Roads Lead to Intersectionality
MBLGTACC 2018 will be hosted by students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

MBLGTACC 2015: Narrating a New Normal!
MBLGTACC 2015 was hosted by Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.

Keynote speakers included: MBLGTACC 2015 is the first host school to actively utilize Guidebook for conference updates; as such, their program can be found here.
 * Laverne Cox, educational and intersectional speaker and the first trans woman of color to hold a mainstream role in a scripted TV show, Orange is the New Black.
 * Identity forum panelists: Dave Bentlin, assistant to the President at Illinois State University, and an active part of the LGBTQQIA Bloomington-Normal community through the Prairie Pride Coalition and the ISU LGBTQA Alumni Network; J Mase III, a black/trans/queer poet and educator currently based in NYC; additionally he also serves as the founder of the first ever talent agency to focus on trans & queer performers of Color, AwQward; Robyn Ochs, an educator, speaker, award-winning activist, and editor of the Bi Women Quarterly, the 42-country anthology, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and the new anthology RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men; and Andrew Morrison-Gurza, a Disability Awareness Consultant whose work has been featured in the Advocate, Huffington Post, and The Good Men Project.
 * Reverend & Dr. Jamie Washington, the President and Founder of the Washington Consulting Group, a Multicultural Organizational Development Firm out of Baltimore, MD, and an educator, administrator, and consultant in higher education for over 29 years.

MBLGTACC 2014: Jazzin' It Up!
MBLGTACC 2014 was hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri.

Keynote speakers included: The program book can be found here.
 * Chely Wright is an American country music artist and gay rights activist. In May 2010, she became one of the first major country music performers to publicly come out as lesbian.
 * Rob Smith is an openly gay Iraq war veteran, journalist, and author of the #1 bestselling memoir Closets, Combat and Coming Out: Coming Of Age As A Gay Man In The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Army.
 * Janet Mock is a writer, an advocate and the New York Times bestselling author of Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, released by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster.
 * Kara Laricks, first winner of Fashion Star and inspirational speaker. She speaks about the power of realizing potential and revealing an authentic self.

MBLGTACC 2013: Mosaic: Putting the Pieces Together
MBLGTACC 2013 was hosted in Lansing, Michigan by students from Michigan State University.

Keynote speakers included: The program book can be found here.
 * Emi Koyama often writes and speaks out about feminism, sexual and domestic violence, sex work/trade and trafficking, queer and trans liberation, intersex and disability issues, among others.
 * Robyn Ochs is an educator, speaker, award-winning activist, and editor of the 42-country anthology, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and the Bi Women newsletter.
 * Ben Cohen, a speaker to raise awareness of the long-term, damaging effects of bullying and to raise funds to support those doing real-world work to stop it.
 * LZ Granderson, an African-American, openly-gay, Christian and a father, journalist and commentator for CNN and ESPN.

MBLGTACC 2012: The Butterfly Effect: Cyclones of Change
MBLGTACC 2012 will be hosted by Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The conference theme is based on the butterfly effect in the theory of evolution, and Cyclones of Change is based on Iowa State's sports team nickname, the Cyclones.

Keynote speakers included: The program book can be found here.
 * Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington, serves as the President and Founder of the Washington Consulting Group, a Multicultural Organizational Development Firm out of Baltimore, MD.
 * Stacey Milbern, is president of the National Youth Leadership Network (NYLN) and a Youth Organizer for the Disabled Young People’s Collective. She is a disability rights activist interested in building a community that recognizes the intersections of oppression.
 * Monica Adams works with Freedom, Inc. as a Queer Youth of Color Organizer, serves as the Middle School Program Assistant as the Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools, and is an activist from Wisconsin.

MBLGTACC 2011: Justice or Just Us?
MBLGTACC 2011 will be hosted by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The conference coincides with the 40th year anniversary of the UM Spectrum Center, the first university office in the country serving the needs of lesbian, gay, transgender, ally and similarly identified students. The theme, "Justice or Just Us?" reflects the interplay between diverse generations, identities, and the intersectional experience within the LGBTQ and Ally movement for equity in every respect.

Keynote speakers included: The program book can be found here.
 * Mara Keisling is a transgender rights activist and founding executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, based in Washington, DC.
 * Mandy Carter is an American black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist.
 * Kris Hayashi has been active in social, racial, and economic justice organizing for over 20 years.

MBLGTACC 2010: Get Real!
MBLGTACC 2010 was held at the Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin and was hosted by the University of Wisconsin.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Loren Cameron, a photographer famous for his photography documentary of female-to-male (FTM) transgender people and author of Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits
 * Mia Mingus
 * Kate Bornstein, a transgender author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist

MBLGTACC 2009: Living Out Loud: Examining the Past to Enhance the Future
MBLGTACC 2009 was held at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana on February 13–16, 2009. It was hosted by the OUT Student Union and the GLBT Support Services Office, among others.

Keynote speakers included:
 * Kand McQueen
 * LZ Granderson, an African-American, openly-gay, Christian and a father, journalist and commentator for CNN and ESPN.
 * Rose Troche

MBLGTACC 2008: Voting for Change: Liberty and Justice for All!
MBLGTACC 2008 was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Illinois on February 22 - February 24, 2008. It was hosted by the Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resources.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Eric Alva, Iraqi War veteran and spokesperson against the American military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
 * TJ Jourian, a Lebanese-Armenian-Cypriot, Middle Eastern transmale activist and cast member of the Sundance docu-series TransGeneration.
 * Angela Davis, a professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz and an advocate for gender, racial and economic justice and the abolition of the prison system.

MBLGTACC 2007: Alphabet Soup - No Matter The Letter We Stand Together
MBLGTACC 2007 was held at the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 16 - February 18, 2007. It was hosted by the Queer Student Cultural Center and the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Ally Programs Office.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Faisal Alam, founder of Al-Fatiha Foundation, an organization dedicated to the empowerment and advancement of gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims
 * Loren Cameron, a photographer famous for his photography documentary of female-to-male (FTM) transgender people and author of Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits
 * Margaret Cho, actress, comedian, and GLBT-rights advocate; star of All-American Girl (1996), Notorious C.H.O. (2001), and Assassin (2005)
 * Robyn Ochs, co-founder of the Bisexual Resource Network and author of Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World
 * Mandy Carter, a founding board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, an advocacy group for GLBT-identified persons of color.

MBLGTACC 2006: Painting the Rainbow - Celebrating Unity Through Diversity
MBLGTACC 2006 was held at the Sioux Falls Convention Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on February 17 - February 19, 2006. It was hosted by the 10% Society of the University of South Dakota.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Jon Hoadley, a Michigan State University alumnus and leader of the drive to defeat a proposed amendment in November 2006 in South Dakota that would ban same-sex marriages and civil unions
 * Magdalen Hsu-Li, a singer-songwriter, painter, and cultural activist whose discography includes Muscle and Bone (1997), Fire (2001), and Smashing the Ceiling (2005)

MBLGTACC 2005: Building The Bridge To Bring It All Together
MBLGTACC 2005 was held at Saint Cloud State University in Saint Cloud, Minnesota on February 18 - February 20, 2005. It was hosted by OutLoud! and the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Services.

Kenyote speakers included:


 * Mandy Carter, a founding board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, an advocacy group for GLBT-identified persons of color
 * Ann DeGroot, co-founder and executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state's leading GLBT advocacy organization
 * Terry Tafoya, American Indian researcher on the faculty of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. He talks with us about the Kinsey, his work there, and a new grant he's received to look at two spirit Native population wholeness and health.
 * Troix Bettencourt At twenty-eight, Troix Bettencourt knows first hand that gay, lesbian, and HIV-positive teenagers fall through the cracks of society. After Troix was violently removed from his home as a teenager both by his parents and police because he was gay, he became an advocate on gay youth and HIV related issues. HIV-positive for the last ten years, Troix was appointed member on the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Youth Commission, spoke at the 1993 Gay & Lesbian March on Washington, and is the program director of HIV Support Services at the Justice Resource Institute of Boston. Troix's program stresses the need for young people to avoid sexual risk and communicate with each other before intimacy. Troix has taken what could have been a tragic situation and has turned in into a positive message for people everywhere.

MBLGTACC 2004: Speak Up! Speak Out! Celebrating the Power of Communication to Fight Hate and Fear
MBLGTACC 2004 was held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on February 13 - February 15, 2004.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, a former three-term Massachusetts state representative, and former two-term mayor of Melrose, Massachusetts
 * Dave Noble, former executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats
 * Robyn Ochs, co-founder of the Bisexual Resource Network and author of Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World
 * Riki Wilchins, a gender-rights activist, as well as founder and executive director of GenderPAC, a human rights organization focused on issues of gender

MBLGTACC 2003: Loving With Pride
MBLGTACC 2003 was held at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on February 14 - February 16, 2003. It was hosted by FUSION and the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Student Services.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Susie Bright, aka Susie Sexpert, writer, teacher, performer, host of radio show "In Bed with Susie Bright", and co-founder and former editor of female sex magazine On Our Backs
 * RuPaul Charles, an American drag performer, dance music singer, actor and songwriter, filmography including The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) and But I'm A Cheerleader (1999)
 * Moisés Kaufman, playwright and director famous for co-writing The Laramie Project

MBLGTACC 2002: Still Moving Forward
MBLGTACC 2002 was held at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan on March 15 - March 17, 2002. It was hosted by The Alliance of Les-Bi-Gay-Transgender and Straight Ally Students and Multicultural Development: Lesbian-Bi-Gay and Transgender Concerns.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Leslie Feinberg, a transgender activist, speaker, managing editor of Workers World newspaper, and author of Stone Butch Blues (1993) and Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman (1996)
 * James Earl Hardy, an author and journalist dedicated to telling stories of black men who love black men
 * E. Lynn Harris, an openly gay African American who has authored Invisible Life (1991), Just As I Am (1994), And This Too Shall Pass (1996), If This World Were Mine (1997), and Abide With Me (1999)
 * Joo Hyun Kang, the former executive director of The Audre Lorde Project, and organizing center for GLBT people of color, and a member of CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
 * David Rakoff, an actor, journalist, and essayist who has been published in the books Fraud (2001) and Don't Get Too Comfortable (2005)

MBLGTACC 2001: Out and About - Breaking the Silence, Breaking the Boundaries, Breaking the Labels
MBLGTACC 2001 was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Illinois on February 16 - February 18, 2001. It was hosted by PRIDE and the Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Concerns.

This year saw the addition of "Ally" to the conference name.

MBLGTCC 2000: Making Waves Into the New Millennium
MBLGTCC 2000 was held at the Saint Cloud State University in Saint Cloud, Minnesota on February 18 - February 20, 2000. It was hosted by OutLoud! and the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Services.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Kate Bornstein, a transgender author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist
 * Mandy Carter, a founding board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, an advocacy group for GLBT-identified persons of color
 * Barbara Smith, an African-American, lesbian feminist who has played a significant role in building and sustaining Black Feminism in the United States
 * Robert Vázquez-Pacheco, director of community education and organizing for the Audre Lorde Project

MBLGTCC 1999: Moving Forward, Looking Back
MBLGTCC 1999 was held at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in Madison, Wisconsin on February 19 - February 21, 1999. It was hosted by the Ten Percent Society and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Center.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Virginia Apuzzo, former Assistant to the President for Management and Administration in the White House, and former Executive Director of the National Gay Task Force
 * Larry Kramer, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Ken Russell's Women in Love, author of the best-selling satirical novel Faggots, founder of ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), and co-founder of GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis)
 * Rebecca Walker, contributing editor to Ms. magazine since 1989

MBLGTCC 1998: Across the Fruited Plain
MBLGTCC 1998 was held at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, Illinois on February 20 - February 22, 1998. It was hosted by PRIDE: Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender People Advocating Diversity, the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gays and Bisexual Issues, and the Office of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns.

This year saw the addition of "Transgender" to the conference name.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Urvashi Vaid, former executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation
 * Leslie Feinberg, a trangender activist, speaker, managing editor of Workers World newspaper, and author of Stone Butch Blues (1993) and Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman (1996)
 * Michelangelo Signorile, radio talk show host of The Michelangelo Signorile Show and author of books such as Queer in America and Hitting Hard

MBLGCC 1997: We're Here! We're Queer! We're Fabulous!
MBLGCC 1997 was held at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana on February 21 - February 23, 1997. It was hosted by The Alliance of Bisexual, Lesbian and Gay Students and Allies.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Jim J. Bullock, an actor, comedian, talk show host, former cast member of Too Close For Comfort and The Jim J. & Tammy Faye Show
 * Leslea Newman, a well-published and controversial author, best known for books such as Heather has Two Mommies and Good Enough To Eat
 * Kenneth Sherril, chair of the Political Science Department at Hunter College, editor of essays such as Gays and The Military

MBLGCC 1996: Building Queer Success in the Midwest
MBLGCC 1996 was held at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin on February 23 - February 25, 1996.

Keynote speakers included:


 * Lillian Faderman, an English Professor at California State University at Fresno, and author of Love of Men, Chloe Plus Olivia, and Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers
 * Miriam Ben-Shalom, founder and former chairperson of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America, and special needs teacher in the Milwaukee Public School System
 * Paul Wesselmann, an active member of the GLBT community in Madison, Wisconsin, where he began Stone Soup Seminars, and the director of Volunteer Services at the Madison AIDS Support Network

MBLGCC 1995
MBLGCC 1995 was held at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in Carbondale, Illinois on February 24 - February 26, 1995. It was hosted by Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Friends.

Keynote speakers included Urvashi Vaid and Troix Bettencourt.

There was a night of comedy featuring Suzanne Westenhoeffer, Suzy Burger, Bob Smith and one more comedian.

The conference theme was "Building Queer Success in the Midwest."

MBLGCC 1994
MBLGCC 1994 was held at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana on February 18 - February 20, 1994. It was hosted by the Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay People's Union.

Keynote speakers included:

This was the first year that the conference featured entertainment and not just workshops and keynotes. The conference featured entertainment by comedienne, Marga Gomez, and the Flirtations.
 * Angela Bowen, a black lesbian feminist writer and activist, former co-chair of the National Coalition for Black Lesbians and Gays, and recipient of the Fannie Lou Hamer Award for working to combat racism and celebrate women of color
 * Tom Neal, a gay student activist from Texas, as well as founder and board member of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Student Groups in Dallas

About 250 people attended the conference. Most attenders were hosted by Earlham students and stayed in the dorms (community housing).

MBLGCC 1993
MBLGCC 1993 was held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on February 19 - February 21, 1993. It was a collaborative effort between Drake University and Iowa State University. The theme of the conference was, "Making It Perfectly Queer"

Keynote speakers included:
 * Glenn Magpantay - Former Co-Chair of the National Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Student Caucus, the only LGB student organization in the country that operates on a national level.


 * Suzanne Denevan - Openly lesbian former student body president of University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, Suzanne has spoken to LGB student organizations and events across the United States.

1992 Organizing Conference
An organizing conference for MBLGCC was held at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas in February 1992.

1991 Conception
The initial discussions surrounding the establishment of the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay College Conference were held in Des Moines, Iowa in February 1991.