Last week, nearly 2,000 LGBTQ+ rights activists, organizers, and supporters from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C., for Creating Change 2026, the National LGBTQ Task Force’s flagship annual conference.
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The event was held Wednesday through Sunday at the Washington Hilton, the iconic building where President Ronald Reagan was shot and killed in 1981 and home to the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner and other notable Washington events. The rally unfolded as political repression, disinformation, and fear intensified, with the phrase “we are keeping us safe” echoing throughout plenary sessions, workshops, and hallway conversations alike.
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This message was not offered as a comfort, but as an obligation. The tone was set during the opening plenary, “The State of the Movement,” when Fernando Z. López, the task force’s senior strategist and director of creating change, spoke about this moment.
Provided by: National LGBTQ Task Force
“It’s a mess,” Lopez said to the crowd. “But we are still here.” López described the conference as part of a long-term continuation of survival and resistance, stressing that the movement will not improvise over the crisis. They say response capacity is built through relationships, infrastructure, and shared responsibility long before an emergency occurs.
Washington’s role as host city was even more resonant after World Pride 2025, which ran from May 23 to June 8 and made the District the second U.S. city to host a global event. The celebration drew participants from around the world, including more than 300 parade troops and approximately 35,000 marchers, and coincided with the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations in the nation’s capital.
Former Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins issued a warning based on the city’s experience. She said the shootings of innocent residents by masked federal agents, military deployments and widespread fear have upended daily life and that Minneapolis should not be viewed as an anomaly.
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“This is not just a Minneapolis issue,” Jenkins, the first blacked-out transgender woman elected to public office in the United States, told attendees. “This is an American problem. Fascism is rampant around the world, and it’s up to us to fight it.” Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2024, his administration has rolled back protections for transgender people across the country, going so far as to erase transgender identities from federal agencies.
Provided by: National LGBTQ Task Force
Select Committee Executive Director Kiera Johnson closed the session by reframing the backlash itself. She argued that the LGBTQ+ community faces oppression not because they fail, but because they succeed. “Victory will energize the opposition,” Mr Johnson said, warning that proximity to power could breed complacency if it was not matched by thorough organizing. “If you don’t have talent, you don’t have power.”
This focus on community as a strategy continued in Friday’s plenary, “De-Extremism,” moderated by journalist Laura Flanders. “We have bombings, we have kidnappings, we have murders by ICE. We have militarization and occupation,” Flanders said, explaining how impunity is increasingly defining governance.
Nadine Smith, formerly with Equality Florida and now with Color of Change, explained that extremism is a deliberate effort to keep people in a constant state of fear and imbalance. Building on Florida’s experience, Smith warned that the situation is likely to get worse, especially as artificial intelligence accelerates disinformation campaigns. “The goal is to create terrorism and take away our power,” Smith said, adding that resistance depends on continued community building before a crisis occurs. She pointed to Minneapolis as evidence that rapid mobilization is only possible when relationships already exist.
The community formed a support network after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, when masked ICE agents began roaming the streets, picking up people they deemed to be illegal immigrants. Citizens adopted whistles to warn of activity in their areas and developed food pantries and delivery services for neighbors too scared to leave their homes.
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Smith argued that solidarity must go beyond glossy rhetoric and extend mutual aid to material support to meet people’s basic needs, and to building a “path of return” for those who have left extremist movements, rather than stamping them out entirely.
Provided by: National LGBTQ Task Force
Chris Hayashi, director of the Transgender Justice National Campaign for the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & HIV Project, grounded the conversation in the lived realities of the transgender and nonbinary community. Violence and discrimination are not new, but the scale and coordination of attacks are, Hayashi said. “Over the past 10 years, we have seen hundreds of bills,” Hayashi said, citing increased threats to immigrant communities as well as loss of access to health care, education and legal recognition. Hayashi emphasized that these attacks are interconnected, strategic and not random.
Hayashi also noted that polls show more people support transgender rights than oppose them, and argued that the challenge is to turn that support into lasting power while centering joy and community as tools for survival.
The meeting unfolded as winter storm Fern approaches the East Coast. By Saturday evening, flight and Amtrak cancellations forced some participants to leave early, and some remained stranded in Washington as the storm ushered in some of the region’s coldest weather in years. The Washington Hilton offered extended discounts on lodging to attendees who were unable to depart on time.
Provided by: National LGBTQ Task Force
During the conference, defenderEqual Pride, the parent company of Equal Pride, was the conference’s media sponsor and was provided complimentary accommodation across the street from the Hilton at the Generator, a former Marriott property now operated as a boutique hostel. Despite the hostel designation, the modern room was spacious and comfortable, comparable to a Hilton room, and had a great view of Connecticut Avenue with the Washington Monument in the distance. During our stay, there was an unfortunate mechanical failure that left guests without hot water and basic comfort in the cold, but the generator staff were very frank and apologetic.
Outside of the formal program, participants were immersed in Washington’s LGBTQ+ community. The school district has the highest percentage of LGBTQ+ people in the United States. An estimated 14.3 percent of adults in Washington, D.C., identify as LGBTQ, according to a recent analysis by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, and the city is home to 36 national and international LGBTQ+ organizations, according to Destination DC.
Provided by: National LGBTQ Task Force
The district is home to dozens of LGBTQ+-owned bars, restaurants, bookstores, fitness spaces, cultural institutions, and other small businesses, many concentrated around Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Shaw, and U Street. Conference attendees filled the space throughout the week, reinforcing the gathering’s recurring themes that joy, connection, and physical presence are part of resistance, not a distraction from it.
As participants returned home, some behind schedule, organizers urged participants to forge new connections, share lessons learned, and practice care and rest as a political imperative.
The next “Creating Change” will be held in Louisville, Kentucky from January 27-31, 2027.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
