‘A Critical Look at the LGBT Movement’ topic of Rice lecture Feb. 5

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
david@rice.edu
713-348-6327

Jeff Falk
jfalk@rice.edu
713-348-6775

‘A Critical Look at the LGBT Movement’ topic of Rice lecture Feb. 5

HOUSTON – (Jan. 26, 2015) – Indian-American LGBT rights activist Urvashi Vaid will discuss the state and future of the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as part of Rice University’s Gray/Wawro Lecture Series Feb 5.

Co-presented by Rice’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality and the Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, the talk is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Who: Urvashi Vaid, an attorney, author and director of the Engaging Tradition Project at Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

What: Gray/Wawro Lecture Series talk on “A Critical Look at the LGBT Movement.”

When: 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5. A reception will follow Vaid’s lecture.

Where: Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, 2025 W. 11th St.

Marriage equality is all over the news and seems like an unstoppable tidal wave, according to event organizers, but what is really going on for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people today? How does one square advances in LGBT rights with continuing setbacks on racial justice, with over-criminalization, with antichoice advances or with high levels of violence against women? Is there a difference between formal legal equality and lived equality? The event will feature a candid conversation with Vaid, who argues that creative work for economic, gender, racial and environmental justice is the way forward for LGBT equality, organizers said.

Vaid is considered a leading voice in contemporary social justice movements. Early in her career, she initiated the America Civil Liberty Union’s National Prison Project work on HIV/AIDS in prisons. She has since served as executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, deputy director of the Ford Foundation’s Governance and Civil Society Program and executive director of the Arcus Foundation. In 2012, she founded the National Lesbian Political Action Committee, whose goals are to support feminist, progressive and pro-LGBT campaigns. She is also a board member of the Gill Foundation. Vaid is the author of “Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Lesbian and Gay Liberation” (1996) and co-edited with John D’Emilio and William Turner the anthology “Creating Change: Public Policy, Sexuality and Civil Rights” (2000). Her most recent book is “Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics” (2012).

Through the support of Melanie Gray and Mark Wawro, this lecture series recognizes health as a matter of physical and social well-being and highlights gender as a key factor determining opportunity and quality of life. Each lecture brings to Houston a leading scholar whose work inspires deeper understanding of the gender features that underlie urgent health concerns and fosters public conversation that can prompt informed action toward a more just world.

The event is free and open to the public. Due to limited seating, RSVPs are required.  RSVP to rsvpcswgs@rice.edu. For parking information, visit www.resurrectionmcc.org/welcome/location-and-hours.

The reception following the talk is co-sponsored by ACLU Texas, Columbia University Club of South Texas, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, Rice Alumni Pride and SEIU Texas.

Members of the news media who want to attend should RSVP to Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

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Related materials:

Vaid bio: http://urvashivaid.net/wp/?page_id=2.