Kierra Johnson speaking at Creating Change 2025, Photo Courtesy LGBTQ Taske Force
A year ago, the National LGBTQ Task Force was girding to “hold the line,” in a sense. Donald J. Trump had just won the presidential election with a plurality — 49.8% — of the popular vote, setting the stage for a January inauguration that would install an administration expected to be oppressively hostile to the country’s LGBTQ community, particularly the Transgender community, as well as efforts promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The sweeping scope of that hostility, from discharging all Trans service members from the U.S. military to the pettiness of erasing rainbow crosswalks, transpired at breakneck speed.
To meet the challenge of the moment, the Task Force is bringing its flagship national conference, Creating Change, back to Washington for the first time since 2018. Notably, the inaugural Creating Change, in 1988, was also held in D.C. (Metro Weekly is a Creating Change 2026 media sponsor.)
“D.C. is where decisions are being made about our rights, our futures, and our lives,” reads a Task Force statement about the upcoming conference, which will run Jan. 21 to 25. “This is a place where being present matters. Our people are already in DC. The organizers. The movement builders. The folks shaking the halls of power.”
Ahead of the 38th annual Creating Change, the event’s director, Fernando Lopez, emphasized the importance of place in a Task Force statement this week.
“There is a palpable call for courage in D.C. as we build momentum for Creating Change, where we will continue to blueprint our liberation at a time when our very existence is being legislated out of classrooms, clinics and courtrooms,” said Lopez. “Our convening is our rebellion, our refuge, and our rallying cry. From the streets of our neighborhoods to the suites of power, we will gather to share wisdom, to turn outrage into strategy and strategy into action, equipping people from across the nation to build an unstoppable movement.”
Task Force President Kierra Johnson will help open the conference’s “state of the movement” presentation, along with a traditional welcome from indigenous LGBTQ and Two-Spirit representatives. Celebrating the conference’s return to D.C., bands affiliated with the city’s Go-Go Museum & Café will perform. Among other D.C.-centric highlights, celebrated local activist and artist Rayceen Pendarvis will appear at a Jan. 23 general session.
“Creating Change’s general sessions highlight major issues affecting our LGBTQ+ communities and bring together diverse and powerful voices that are creating change in their communities and our culture,” Johnson said in her statement. “At Creating Change 2026, we will address current challenges head-on, identify the next steps to strategically move forward and celebrate queer culture by bringing much needed joy to the stage.”
The Creating Change registration deadline is Dec. 22, offered at a variety of tier levels. For more information or to register, visit TheTaskForce.org/creating-change.
The United States Tennis Association, the national governing body for tennis in the United States, has quietly banned transgender athletes from competing in women's events.
As first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas in her newsletter The Handbasket, the USTA revised its "Player Eligibility Policy" page on October 25 with no prior warning or public announcement.
Under the revised policy -- which applies to all sex-specific junior and adult leagues, tournaments, and competitions, whether Olympic, professional, or recreational -- only athletes who meet the USTA's definition of a woman or girl may compete in events designated for women or girls.
Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor is facing backlash after ordering the removal of rainbow Pride and Trans Pride flag-colored crosswalks from a downtown intersection last month.
The Pride flag crosswalks, the first of their kind in Maryland, were painted in 2018 at the intersection of South Division Street and West and East Market Streets, near the Wicomico River and the city's Riverwalk, as a symbol of support for LGBTQ inclusion.
More than 60 volunteers, most affiliated with the Salisbury chapter of PFLAG, came from across Maryland to help paint the designs. In the years since, PFLAG and local volunteers have repainted the crosswalk as part of Salisbury's Pride Month celebrations.
The summer of 1985, I turned 16. In Belgium. While I lived primarily in rural, red Florida, summers sometimes had me staying with Dad's family. At the time, my Army father was assigned to the American embassy in Brussels. With $100 in American Express "travelers' cheques," our go-to global currency of the time, it was a thrilling summer.
In Florida, I would've spent those months mopping floors or working the grill at a mall job. Instead, I had urban mass transit and could drink in bars. Granted, my Euro '80s summer was more Depeche Mode than anything as explicit as Call Me By Your Name. Though virginal, at least I passed for something seedier one afternoon.
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