CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new discussion series hopes to bring community members together to explore the current and future needs of the Queen City’s LGBT community.
“The Present & Future of the Charlotte Queer Community” kicks off this Sunday, Oct. 26, 2-3:30 p.m., with its first of several panel discussions. The conversation series held in collaboration with the Levine Museum of the New South and its ongoing “LGBTQ Perspectives on Equality” exhibits.
The first panel discussion will be held at the Levine Museum and will include social worker Mel Hartsell of the LGBT Community Center’s PRISM, transgender advocate Paige Dula, Charlotte Business Guild board member James Rice III, Equality North Carolina’s Crystal Richardson and Time Out Youth’s Todd Rosendahl. The panel will be moderated by Charlotte Black Gay Pride’s Malu Fairley.
The goal of the series, says organizer Joshua Burford, is to allow community members to share perspectives on the current state of Charlotte’s LGBT community and where they would like to see it move forward. Burford, the assistant director for sexual and gender diversity at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, is one of the lead researchers behind the new Charlotte LGBTQ Community Archive and a planner of the Levine exhibits.
The second panel discussions in the series will be hosted on Nov. 11, 6-7:30 p.m., at the UNC-Charlotte Student Union, Room 340 GHI. This writer is scheduled to participate as a panelist.
A third conversation in the series will be held again at the Levine Museum of the New South. A final date for the event is to be announced.
There’s a Panthers game Sunday. Good luck with parking.
Parking for the museum is available at 7th Street Station parking deck. The museum validates parking.