IT was recently reported that The White House will be presenting a number of conferences on LGBT health around the country, with the first in the series to be held in Philadelphia on February 16 2012. The Philadelphia White House LGBT Conference on Health will feature remarks from Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

The White House - White House LGBT Conference on Health - click to go to this page on The White House website.

The conferences, running from February to June 2012 inclusive, are being organized by the White House Office of Public Engagement – OPE. Activists, community organizers, students, grassroots leaders, advocates and others are invited to take part in the conferences. That list of invitees includes intersex people and the OPE would like very much like intersex people to apply to attend.

White House LGBT Liaison Officer Gautam Raghavan informed us that “this conference is open to the public and we plan to accept RSVPs until we reach capacity” so all intersex people wishing to attend should apply via the form illustrated in the above screenshot as soon as possible.

Mr Raghavan then said that “The conference will address the entire range of health issues including access to health care, aging, youth, mental health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and cultural competency. In addition, we are dedicating a couple of hours to an ‘Open Space’ process by which we will invite participants to identify and form breakout sessions around issues that are not otherwise addressed by the conference. I hope you (or others who attend) will use this time to organize a session on specific health issues that impact intersex people – I think it would be of great benefit to our ongoing conversations about health for ALL Americans.”

External links:

• The White House – Patient Centered Care: Equal Health Care Rights for All Americans
• Washington Blade – White House to host LGBT conferences across country