A breakout open-to-everyone room to discuss asexuality and intersectionality at the conference

[ithaca]

I have actually been thinking about this for the past few weeks. I mentioned it in the PoC safe space thread, which is now turning into a SJ debate about racism in general. To go back to the topic of the conference, the general idea I heard so far is to have a main conference room with a scheduled plan of workshops/panels/talks, and maybe, if it's logistically and financially possible, a breakout space besides the lunch one, open to everyone, not only asexual people and not any specific minority.

This breakout space would likely not have planned talks and alike, in the current plans I've vaguely heard of. My idea is a bit different. I think that it'd be cool to have this second room to be designated for "alternative sessions". For example, say someone is not interested in the research panel, or the visibility panel in the main room. They could check the other room's plan and see that at 2 PM, the time of the research panel, the second room discusses the intersection between trans* and asexual issues. Differently from the main room, it wouldn't be a "speaker vs public" kind of environment, but more like a (if it's feasible) open discussion with everyone being able to talk and add their opinions to the discussion. At 3 PM then the discussion could be planned to shift on the issues faced by PoC that are relevant to asexuality, though obviously it being an open discussion that means that each topic could go on longer than planned.

It's still a bit of a messy thingy, but I hope you get the main idea I'm trying to convey.

[Guest]

I like this idea so much better. It allows for open dialogue and can help teach people about the importance of intersectionality.

[Kelly]

This breakout space would likely not have planned talks and alike, in the current plans I've vaguely heard of. My idea is a bit different. I think that it'd be cool to have this second room to be designated for "alternative sessions". For example, say someone is not interested in the research panel, or the visibility panel in the main room. They could check the other room's plan and see that at 2 PM, the time of the research panel, the second room discusses the intersection between trans* and asexual issues.

I was already planning on making a presentation on the intersections of asexuality and trans and gender non-conforming for WP, including a history, and why we see more of such intersections now. This would fit right in.

[parlance]

Given the way the PoC safe-space discussion was handled, I don't have much optimism that such a panel would be handled well, but I'd love to be proven wrong. At any rate, that discussion turned me off the idea of attending World Pride, so I can only wish you the best.

parlance

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