Conference

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From Past to Present: Queer Advocacy Through the Lens of History

Our past informs our future. This topic will explore the current circumstances surrounding LGBTQ+ policy and use history to provide context, understanding, and nuance.

Eric Reeves (he/they) is the Communications Associate for New Rural Project, a 501c(4) organization that aims to improve the civic engagement, electoral engagement, and material conditions for young marginalized folks in seven of the poorest rural counties in North Carolina.

Born into a military family, they were raised most of their life in rural St. Mary's County, Maryland near Patuxent Naval Air Base. They attended Wingate University and received a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. In addition to their work at NRP, Eric also does community education work in universities, schools, and businesses, hosting workshops and discussions educating folks on LGBTQ+ issues through a historical framework. They are also on the Advisory Board for the Carolina Youth Power Fund, which provides grants to young people looking to engage communities through direct organizing and mobilizing projects.

Finding Meaning in Art

The desire to find meaning during challenging times is a human experience. However, burnout and suffering can lead to a mental block in our ability to find meaning. That is where art comes in to give us new ways to reflect on our own experiences.

Elizabeth Deters (she/her) passion for creating spaces of welcome for all people has led me to a career where she has the privilege of working to support people and communities that have been pushed to the side and overlooked. Her allyship has been a cornerstone of this journey—personally and professionally–guiding her to listen first, center queer voices, and advocate with compassion.

She is  excited to be part of PFLAG Charlotte and the imperative work the organization is doing through education for allies, advocating for equality, and support for families to create a more equitable Charlotte community and beyond.

Building Bridges, Setting Boundaries: Tips for Sustaining Yourself in a Time of Constant Urgency

In a time of rising oppression and bigotry, queer people are at risk. This moment is incredibly dangerous, and the work of organizing our communities and building a durable coalition is incredibly vital. This talk will reflect on some (still in progress) hard-learned lessons for people caught in the doomscroll.

When each next headline can feel like a death sentence to you or someone you love, what is the balance between staying informed and causing needless anxiety?

When so-called allies are backing down, how do you decide where to put your time and energy in a time where co-conspirators are essential?

This session will grapple with these questions and provide (some) answers and tips.

Cameron Pruette (he/him) is the Executive Director of the Freedom Center for Social Justice, where he works to build coalitions fighting for LGBTQ+ equality, immigrant rights, racial equity, and economic justice. He has experience working across North Carolina in support of causes to improve people's lives. He and his husband, Xzaviar, are proud to call the Queen City home.

101 Ways to be Human

This learning event explores how humans are always activating different identities. Through collaborative group exercises, participants are challenged to reflect on their own identities and discover ways to use this awareness to build empathy and understanding.

Kayla Earley (she/he/they) is a Charlotte-native with a passion for public health. She has worked in HIV since 2014. She attended Lenoir-Rhyne University for both her Bachelor of Science in Community Health and Master of Public Health. She currently serves as an External Affairs Community Liaison Manager for ViiV Healthcare, where her role is to listen to communities, activate a response, amplify voices, and sustain resources in areas most impacted by HIV.

Advocating While Autistic: Creating a more Inclusive Culture in non profit and policy spaces.

Susan Book will discuss her journey becoming an advocate, ableist red flags discovered along the way, and ways to build a better space for advocates.

Susan Book (she/her) is a public school advocate and co-administrator for Save Our Schools NC. She co-hosts the podcast Advocacy Bites. Susan currently leads the engagement team with the Every Child NC Coalition.  She is also an avid writer, blogger, and speaker on issues like education and Disability Rights. First and foremost, she is a public school parent to an autistic son and fights for him and others like him to receive a sound basic education.

Find Your Fucking Fire

Where the fuck did the fire go, and how can we get it back? Join us for this workshop based on Find Your Fucking Fire, where we'll find our fire again and learn to use it for social change. Let's dismantle the myth that anger is dangerous or unjustified, learning how it fuels liberation. We'll discover how anger is suppressed, ways to uncover it in our bodies, practices for embracing its many forms, and opportunities to express it fully. We'll share in a collective conversation about methods for channeling anger toward meaningful social change, especially for those of us who have lived on the margins (and our allies) where anger has too often been pathologised or punished.

Anne Kinsey, M.Div (they/them) is a poet, author, and trauma recovery professional whose work centers intersectionality, social transformation, and healing from systemic harm. With a background in anti-trafficking leadership, activism, and direct client care, they bring intellectual rigor and deep relational attunement to their work across spheres.

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Anne is the author of Mosaic Hearts: Poems on Being a Queer and Interracial Family in the South (2025) and Find Your F*cking Fire: Poems on Embracing Anger for Social Change (2025). Their work appears in the anthology, Love Is for All of Us, as well as other literary publications. They are also a Co-Founder and Editor for Balsam Spring Publishing. For more than two decades, they have worked in writing and editorial roles across independent and established platforms.

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As Founder and Executive Director of Love Powered Life, a nonprofit serving trans and queer survivors of human trafficking, Anne integrates neurofeedback, heart rate variability biofeedback, and writing-as-healing practices into their work. They have also provided consulting support to major anti-trafficking organizations and federal initiatives within the United States.

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Outside of publishing, Anne can often be found hiking wooded trails, laughing in the kitchen with their spouse and three teenagers, or in late-night conversations about tarot and collective liberation. Their faithful service dog maintains a strict security protocol against squirrels, skunks, and suspicious nighttime leaf activity.

Mission-Driven, Not Mission-Consumed

Advocacy culture has a quiet problem: it rewards burnout. We celebrate the leader who works through their vacation and praise the person who stayed up all night for the cause. And somewhere along the way, running on empty became a sign of commitment.

In this session, we will challenge that culture head-on and offer a better way forward. As well as reframing advocate wellness not as a luxury or an afterthought, but as a professional strategy. Because an advocate who burns out serves no one.

You will leave with four practical anchors for building sustainable advocacy into your real, everyday work, along with the permission slip most of us have been waiting for.

This session is for anyone who has ever given everything to a cause and wondered how much longer they can keep going.

Joshua Jernigan (he/him/his) is a transgender and queer rights activist living in the greater Charlotte metropolitan area where he and his husband are raising their family together. He started the Gender Education Network, an organization helping transgender and gender diverse youth under 12, and is passionate about ensuring every child has a safe and loving home to nurture their growing identities.  Joshua has extensive experience in early childhood education both in traditional classroom settings and remotely. He has previously taught classes on numerous topics ranging from sign language instruction to racial and gender identities to queer history and creative writing.  Joshua is passionate about accurate and accessible history. He has worked hard to protect and illuminate many aspects of our historical records that have been actively suppressed by those aiming to promote self-serving narratives. This passion has led to him giving several speeches about accurate queer history and why it’s important that this information be available for all individuals.  When not helping kids or educating in some way, Joshua enjoys hiking, camping, and just hanging out with his family. He has authored a children’s book, and is working on additional writing projects currently. He and his husband also recently founded Wild Pride Productions, a media company with many awesome projects planned for the near future.

Refusing Invisibility: LGBTQ Life, Resistance, and Power in North Carolina's Critical Moment

Since 2024, North Carolina has passed a wave of legislation designed not just to limit LGBTQ rights, but to push LGBTQ people out of public life altogether — out of classrooms, out of healthcare, out of sports, out of sight. This session is for LGBTQ community members and their allies who are living inside that reality every day. We'll talk honestly about what this political moment feels like on the ground — the exhaustion, the fear, the grief — and about the ways communities across North Carolina are refusing to disappear.

But surviving this moment also means knowing where you still stand legally. In a landscape where the rules are changing fast and misinformation spreads faster, we'll break down what rights LGBTQ people in North Carolina currently have and don't have — at work, in schools, in healthcare settings, and in public life — and what to do when those rights are violated. Knowledge is protection, and no one should have to navigate this alone without understanding what the law says right now.

This session is about what comes next. With November elections on the horizon, this is a pivotal window to move from surviving to organizing. Together, we'll discuss how to translate lived experience into political power — voter registration, candidate accountability, down-ballot races that directly shape LGBTQ lives, and how to turn anger and fear into action at the polls.

Chantal Stevens with ACLU NC brings more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit organizational leadership, fundraising, and management. Previously, she worked in progressively senior roles in nonprofits serving young people of color and economically neglected students including GO Project, Oliver Scholars, and A Better Chance.

Protecting Your Digital Privacy as an Advocate, Activist, and Professional

This seminar equips advocates, activists, and professionals with essential tools to protect their technology from unwarranted government searches. Participants will learn how constitutional protections apply to devices like phones and laptops, what to expect in common situations (such as protests or law enforcement encounters), and how to assert their rights.

In addition to legal guidance, the session walks through concrete steps to protect yourself and your devices, such as enabling encryption, strengthening passwords, limiting data exposure, preparing for device confiscation, and responding safely if approached by authorities. Attendees will leave with practical, real-world strategies to safeguard their work without compromising their mission.

Cristal Robinson, JD/MBA, (they/them/she) is a disability and civil rights attorney who leads Robinson Law, a national virtual practice fighting for disability and queer liberation, economic equity, and the power of community-based organizations. As a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation—an honor held by only 1% of attorneys—they use their platform to challenge exclusion, dismantle barriers, and push institutions toward real accountability.

Cristal’s advocacy is shaped by lived experience as a late-identified autistic professional and as a parent homeschooling an autistic teen alongside their spouse of 32 years. Their work is unapologetically intersectional, rooted in the belief that access is a human right and that systems must be built with—not just for—marginalized communities. Cristal speaks with the urgency of someone who knows the stakes: inclusion isn’t optional, equity isn’t theoretical, and justice requires action.

State of the Unhoused: Understanding Homelessness in Union County

Join Michael Evola from the Community Shelter for an important conversation on the State of the Unhoused in Union County. This discussion will provide insight into the growing challenges facing individuals and families experiencing homelessness, the impact on our community, and the work being done locally to provide shelter, support, and long-term solutions. Attendees will learn about current needs, barriers to housing stability, and ways residents can become involved in creating a more compassionate and supportive Union County for all.

Michael Evola is a proven public servant, serving as one of the youngest Council Members and Chair for two state, governor-appointed, councils, advocating to ensure North Carolina has the services and resources needed to eliminate barriers and provide full accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities.

Initially appointed by Governor Roy Cooper and then reappointed by Governor Josh Stein, Michael has served as a Council Member on the North Carolina Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing since July 2021 and on the North Carolina Statewide Independent Living Council since February 2024.

Before ICE Shows Up: What Immigrant Families Need Their Allies to Know

Most U.S. citizens want to help their immigrant friends, neighbors, coworkers, clients, students, and chosen family, but many do not know what information is actually useful before an emergency happens.

In this presentation, Attorney Beckie Moriello will share practical, plain-language information that attendees can pass along to immigrants in their communities. The focus is not on becoming an immigration expert. The focus is on learning what kinds of preparation may help immigrant families before there is an ICE arrest, detention, or deportation crisis.

Attendees will learn how immigrants can:

1. REDUCE their chances of being arrested by ICE.
2. INCREASE their chances of being released in the U.S. if ICE does arrest them.
3. SHORTEN the amount of time they spend detained, if ICE detains them.

This presentation is especially for allies, U.S. citizens, LGBTQ community members, service providers, and anyone who wants to know how to share helpful information responsibly. You may not be able to represent someone in immigration court, but you may be able to help them get the right information before they ever end up there.

Attorney Beckie Moriello (they/any) is an NC Board Certified Specialist in Immigration Law and the supervising attorney at Raleigh Immigration Law Firm. Since 2010, Beckie has focused their career on defending immigrants against deportation in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Beckie founded Raleigh Immigration Law Firm after seeing how often immigrants were placed in deportation proceedings because of minor traffic tickets, dismissed criminal charges, or lack of access to basic legal information before a crisis happened. They have since become a frequent speaker on immigration law and policy, presenting to immigrant communities, attorneys, educators, faith groups, LGBTQ organizations, and U.S. citizens who want to better support their immigrant neighbors.

Beckie regularly presents in English and Spanish on topics affecting undocumented immigrants, mixed-status families, asylum seekers, immigrant youth, and LGBTQ Latinx communities. Their work is rooted in a simple belief: immigrant families deserve safety, dignity, and the chance to plan before the government shows up at their door.

Authenticity Without Burnout: How to Lead, Heal, and Teach Without Losing Yourself 

The commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community is as rewarding as it is demanding. For many professionals, the "double duty" of performing at a high level while navigating minority stress or intense advocacy can lead to a specific, heavy kind of exhaustion.

This session explores the vital intersection of professional excellence and personal preservation. We will move beyond surface-level self-care to discuss practical, sustainable strategies for managing the emotional labor inherent in leading, healing, and teaching.

Key takeaways include:

● Identifying the "Authenticity Tax": Understanding how emotional labor and minority

stress impact mental health in professional settings.

● Tactical Boundary Setting: Practical techniques for lawyers, clinicians, and educators

to protect their energy without compromising their impact.

● The Sustainability Blueprint: Frameworks for achieving a work-life balance that honors

your identity and prevents burnout.

● Community Resilience: Building supportive networks that allow us to show up fully for

others while staying whole ourselves

Cindy Lemberg (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker providing virtual mental health therapy and autism testing to teens and adults in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Cindy primarily works with members of the queer community who are impacted by trauma, minority stress, and neurodiversity.