Authentic Allyship/Upping Your Game
Recently there has been much discussion in various settings about Allyship. Is “Ally” a descriptor you can give to yourself, or is it one you must earn and be given by others? Why is there controversy in what it means to be an authentic ally? What can one do to be viewed as an ally? What do you do when you come face to face with a dilemma which challenges your notion of allyship? What do you do when the person(s)/place/cause to which you pledge allyship informs you that you are NOT an ally? And what happens when you are challenged to move beyond allyship and view your work as being what Feminista Jones refers to as a “co-conspirator?” And how does all of this fit into the struggle for Sexual Liberation? Join us for what is sure to be a passionate, challenging and eye-opening conversation on how you can Up Your Game! Attendees will better understand the concept of "allyship", will develop their own definitions and will make public commitments to one "ally" behavior.
Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino of African Descent female to male transsexual who has been a social justice activist since he was 13 years old. A consultant, health educator, speaker, trainer, facilitator, writer, performer, out poly and kinky person and a spiritual hugger, Yoseñio has been a panelist and keynote speaker at numerous universities and sexuality conferences. He was one of the inaugural honorees of The Trans 100 list. Yoseñio is a Board Member of TASHRA (The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance), a Board Member of the Columbia University/Emory University/San Francisco State University Project AFFIRM Transgender Resilience Study and a member of The Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians. Yoseñio is a Certified Restorative Justice Practitioner and has completed the Introduction to the Principles of Kingian Nonviolence. He is on the faculty for the Sex Justice Track of the National LGBTQ Task Force Creating Change Conference. Yoseñio is a Trans Patient Educator at Stanford University. Yoseñio has been featured in several documentaries about gender identity and the trans* experience. He is the founder of Written In The Flesh Erotic Readings (an on-stage opportunity for the lifting up of People of Color voices in Erotica and Sexual Liberation). Yoseñio is also an aspiring Voice Over Artist. Yoseñio believes that there can be no art without activism and no activism without art