Dear friends,
It’s official, and we wanted to let you know as soon as we came to an agreement with all our partners. In full recognition of the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve made the decision to move the 29th annual Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference (MBLGTACC), previously slated for February 2021, to October 8-10, 2021. It will remain in Madison, Wisconsin at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, and our student organizers from UW-Madison and Edgewood College are eager to welcome you, safely, in person.
For months, our teams have been monitoring the public health indicators in our region and across the country, and we’ve also been observing the various policy interventions and higher education reopening plans as they’ve unfolded. Like many major events, we’ve been exploring in earnest how specifically to move forward in offering a meaningful opportunity to connect, educate, and empower each other amid a global health crisis of this nature.
Our decision, made jointly by the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and our team of student organizers, was informed by public health experts in Wisconsin, around the nation, and at the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We will continue to align our forthcoming plans with public health-informed guidance inclusive of the trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic, the safety and wisdom of large gatherings, and evolving timeline for vaccines and therapies.
As organizers of the nation’s largest conference for LGBTQIA+ college students, it’s our special duty to act in alignment with the health and safety of the thousands of people we welcome to MBLGTACC each year. Amid a yet-to-be-contained public health crisis, this is especially the case for our attendees who live at increased risk for severe or even fatal outcomes from the disease. We also know, from nearly three decades of this conference, that the opportunity to physically gather in community is an irreplaceable part of the MBLGTACC experience. That’s why it’s our optimistic intention for the 2021 conference to remain primarily in-person in October, contingent on evolving public health realities and guidance, rather than going fully virtual for the originally-planned dates.
At this time, we’re exploring additional virtual programming opportunities for the coming academic year and designing the October 2021 conference with the flexibility to evolve in response to the public health reality. We’ll continue to share updates and new opportunities with students, advisors, speakers, entertainers, exhibitors, and our broader community over the coming year, and we can’t wait to safely gather with you in Madison next fall.
In solidarity,
The Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity and the MBLGTACC 2021 campus planning team
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The Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity empowers students of diverse sexualities and genders to inspire sustainable change; leads higher education colleagues in relevant and inclusive practices; and advances knowledge of sexuality and gender through advocacy and expansive programming.