{"id":2737,"date":"2014-12-11T21:04:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaccent.org\/?p=2737"},"modified":"2014-12-11T21:04:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:04:46","slug":"leadership-and-diversity-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/leadership-and-diversity-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership and Diversity Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

[soundcloud url=”https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/accent-editor\/lgbtq-conference-mixdown-3″ comments=”true” auto_play=”false” color=”ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″]<\/p>\n

Story and Photos by Ryan Fotenette-Mitchell<\/p>\n

Thought provoking conversations took center stage at the Nov. 21\u00a0Leadership and Diversity Conference. Attendees at the Highland Campus event explored lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender issues.<\/p>\n

Austin Community College Student Life staff member Angela Roberston discussed the main objective for conference.<\/p>\n

“So today, our intent was to challenge students to learn to love and respect one another even when they disagree,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

A religious panel addressed LGBTQ issues in the context of faith and Biblical references. Michael Saenz, a student at ACC, said that we should consider a more modern approach than that laid out in the Bible.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people are basing what they believe on what was written thousands of years ago. The views that were applied then don’t apply now,” Saenz said. “If someone loves someone else, it baffles me that its illegal for them to get married.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson\u00a0talked about how she challenged students to make their own opinions and beliefs, as well as having respect for people with different beliefs than them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were people that were challenged. There were people that were emotional,” Robertson said. \u00a0“And that\u2019s kind of what has to happen. We have to get uncomfortable so that we can grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACC student Elizabeth Cognetti felt called into action by the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been empathetic towards people who struggle day by day.” Cognetti said. “It makes me want to be able to stand up and really do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>ACC holds a Leadership and Diversity Conference every year. For more information visit the Student Life website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>
GAY PRIDE –<\/strong>– By standers observe\u00a0students during the LGBTQ summit. The summit was held at the ACC Highland Campus Nov. 21.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"SONY<\/a>
GETTING AQUAINTED –<\/strong>– Keynote speaker Clint-Micheal Reneau leads the first breakout session of the day which allowed\u00a0students to share their thoughts on LGBTQ issues. Most students came from different campuses for the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"SONY<\/a>
PASSION AND POETRY —<\/strong>\u00a0Joe Anderson of \u00a0The Mahogany project shares his\u00a0story about being gay African-American man through\u00a0poetry. Students sat and watched three live performances from the group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"SONY<\/a>
RESPECT FOR ALL –<\/strong>– Jennifer Flowers, Student Life coordinator, \u00a0stands proudly in front of the Gay Pride flag. The flag was one\u00a0of many banners to represent different groups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"SONY<\/a>
COMING TOGETHER –<\/strong>– Students sit in the stairway to learn more about LGBTQ issues from keynote speaker Clint-Michael Reneau. Banners set around the stairway showed support for equality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[soundcloud url=”https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/accent-editor\/lgbtq-conference-mixdown-3″ comments=”true” auto_play=”false” color=”ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″] Story and Photos by Ryan Fotenette-Mitchell Thought provoking conversations took center stage at the Nov. 21\u00a0Leadership and Diversity Conference. Attendees at the Highland Campus event explored lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender issues. Austin Community College Student Life staff member Angela Roberston discussed the main objective for conference. “So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4015,"featured_media":2744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[80,100,162,230,367,375,416,517],"class_list":["post-2737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-photos-2","tag-angela-robertson","tag-austin-community-college","tag-clint-micheal-reneau","tag-elizabeth-cognetti","tag-leadership-and-diversity-conference","tag-lgbtq","tag-michael-saenz","tag-ryan-fontenette-mitchell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}