in Houston, at Creating Change

That is not the picture of a conference. That is a picture of Houston from the 19th floor of the Hilton Americas.

It's also flipped because I took it on the camera on the computer and it thinks I need a mirror image (probably because most people use this to take pictures of themselves and these need to be flipped to be recognizable.

The reason it's a picture of the Houston skyline on a cloudy day, rather than a picture of the people attending Creating Change, is characteristic of the conference itself. At the beginning of the conference, before the keynote address Sue Hyde, the conference organizer, asked people not to take pictures of attendees without their permission. This deliberate protection of the attendees has two sources. The cynic in me ascribes it to the hyper-touchy-feely, New Age, hippie culture of The Task Force. But the part that is not a cynic recognizes that people come to Creating Change and expect to be safe here. There are people here who are not out, as lesbian, as gay, as trans*, at home. Maybe their boss doesn't know. Maybe their family doesn't know. The last thing they need is for someone to post their picture on Facebook or on some blog. The internet is so permeable, there's no knowing where an innocently posted image will end up.

This is a huge conference for the Movement. There will be 4,000 people here this weekend. (I thought that was enormous, but the nice bartender from our event last night told me that there's an oil conference coming in next week that will have 16,000.) There are hundreds of workshops and caucuses and institutes. I hardly go to anything. This year, I even meant to go to something yesterday morning, but felt crappy and spent most of the day in bed.

This meeting functions at several different levels at once. It attracts a huge number of young activists who fill the hallways and stay up all night. The funders are here, so there are a bunch of meetings between organizations who have money and organizations who want money. There are people hustling for their own businesses. (I talked with one yesterday.) There is a ton of networking and maybe that's the most important function.

This morning I heard someone playing the ukelele in the room next door. That room was the transgender youth reception room. It's open most of the day and despite pretty good soundproofing, I heard shouts and laughter off and on all the time I was in my room. People are here from all over, so some people will only see each other here, for four days.  It could make a huge difference in someone's life.

I bet it does.

I also bet that I have never seen so many skinny jeans/pants in one place.