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| July 19-23, Boulder, Colorado |
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By Eric Rofes, Wes de Vera & Steve Oxendine
The weekend was tremendously energizing to all of us as we learned of initial efforts to take the lessons we've learned from two decades of work on HIV/AIDS and apply them to the many health challenges confronting gay men. Since that time, we've been excited to learn about the beginnings of local projects throughout the nation, intended to improve gay men's health and wellness. We've also been heartened that the spirit of Boulder 1999 has continued to expand and drawn more people concerned about gay men's wellness into our circle. Plans are underway for Summit 2000 and we urge you to consider participating. While this year's summit will continue to include a strong focus on the health challenges facing gay male communities--including, but not limited to, substance abuse, depression and suicide, anti-gay violence, HIV/AIDS, cancer and other chronic diseases, tobacco use, and homophobia--two additional themes have been added. This year's summit will be signed for the hearing impaired.
Second, we intend to include working sessions in order to move forward a range of projects which fell out of last year's summit. Do we want to be part of an effort to reestablish an annual lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender health conference? How can we get federal, state, and local health departments to be more responsive and pro-active with our communities? Can we create a publication focused on gay men's health and wellness? The people who have taken responsibility for various projects will report back at Summit 2000 and we hope to move towards taking action on various critical issues. There will be no national summit in 2001. Instead, that year will be devoted to local/regional organizing of day-long or weekend-long gay men's health summits. Already two dozen groups are considering hosting summits during 2001; hence special skills-building sessions have been planned for Summit 2000 that will support folks heading up the local/regional summits and share lessons learned from our efforts to organize these national summits.
All are welcome to register for the Gay Men's Health Summit 2000. While the focus is on gay men's health, we encourage the participation of people of all genders and sexual orientations who share a commitment to increasing the wellness of gay men. We have expanded participation levels for the upcoming summit but aim to limit participation to 500 people in order to continue the warm and intimate feeling of last year's summit. You might consider attending the summit if you are:
The program sessions for the summit emerge from our participants. If you are interested in presenting please see the "Program Information" document below. Last year we worked diligently to include a wide range of gay male communities in the summit's program. We placed special emphasis on men under 30, men who attend circuit parties, and men of color. We had sessions onthe health concerns of the bear community, homeless gay men, and incarcerated men. We encourage people to continue to offer programs focused on these populations, but this year would like to strengthen our emphases on middle-age and old gay men, men with disabilities, and gay youth. One participant in the 1999 Summit wrote on his evaluation form, "This weekend has rekindled my love for gay men and re-ignited the original vision of gay liberation I held twenty years ago." If you join us, expect a unique five days of learning, teaching, and growing together. The Boulder Summit 2000 Collective
Program Information We invite folks to submit proposals for workshop sessions at Summit 2000. We welcome proposals to be sent our way via email (eerofes@aol.com) from January 20-March 1. We don't want really long proposals, but we ask you to include the following five items: (1) Name of the Session (2) Description of the Session (2-4 sentences) (3) Format for the Session (see below) (4) Names / Affiliation / Location of Each Presenter (5) Preference for Length of Session (60 or 90 minutes) Please note the following items: (a) We really work hard to avoid creating a program comprised entirely of sessions featuring 4 speakers on a panel. We don't want the summit to be a place where participants are talked at all weekend. So PLEASE consider creative formats such as organized debates, media presenations, roundtable discussions, a public conversation between two provocative speakers, experiential workshops, art and writing projects, talk show formats, skits or plays, and fishbowl discussions. We ask that everyone who leads a session allows ample time (at least 30 minutes) for participant discussion/reaction. (b) Be honest about which gay male populations you are focusing on. There's no shame in doing a workshop focused on white urban gay men, but there is a problem if a session is supposedly focused on the entire gay male population, but is really only about the experiences of white urban gay men. (c) We attempt to avoid typical Gay Man 101 sessions such as "Substance Abuse and Gay Men, " or "Youth Suicide." Instead we seek provocative, cutting-edge topics that break new ground or assist us in reconceptualizing an existing problem. Be daring and be bold! We want heretical topics to come forward and we do not adhere to a single party line and keep out those who do not share our views. We are aiming for a program that allows a thousand flowers to bloom, and is hence very diverse, broad-ranging, and, at times, shocking. (d) Everyone who presents at the Summit must fund themselves and also register at the Summit. We understand that at some conferences presenters are given complementary registration, but because we are an informal network, not an established organization, we do not have the ability to do this. Likewise, we try to avoid creating a star syndrome here and instead aim to create a queer public sphere that does not privilege presenters over participants, "experts" over novices, physicians over other health providers, or celebrities over the rank and file. We aim for this to be a simple, down-home experience where folks can mix across usual barriers. (e) In terms of listing the names of the presenters in your session, please consider using any of these formats: Eric Rofes, community organizer, Arcata, CA. Eric Rofes, Ph.D., professor of education, Humboldt State University. Arcata, CA Eric Rofes, author, Dry Bones Breathe: Gay Men Creating Post-AIDS Identities and Cultures. Arcata, CA. Eric Rofes, Board member, Womanvision, Arcata, CA. (f) A small cyber-committee of folks is serving as the program committee. Folks are heading up specific topical areas. If you'd like to join this committee and oversee 3-5 sessions, let us know at (eerofes@aol.com). If you are simply submitting an idea for a session or two, you might find yourself passed on to some of these committee members. They will assist you in crafting your session and they, working with the Boulder Collective 2000, will make the final decisions on sessions. Thanks for your interest. Remember, send all the needed information to Eric Rofes at eerofes@aol.com. Many thanks! Eric Rofes, Wes de Vera, and Steve Oxendine Program Chairs 2000 Movement Registration and further information: www.bcap.org |
Gay Men's Health Summit organizer and author Eric Rofes 
This year we've added a full day to the summit schedule, in order to
counter the jam-packed intensity of last year. While the summit will
officially open on Wednesday night, July 19, and end by 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 23rd,
we are offering pre-summit institutes which meet during the day on Wednesday.
Registration and housing materials are available at 
Columnist Kirk Read 
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