Okaeri: A Nikkei LGBTQ+ Community has announced its 2021 virtual conference, which will take place on November. 12-14, 2021. The conference will include 23 workshops, a plenary focused on (insert very brief description), and a special guest appearance and performance by drag star Gia Gunn.
This year, the conference will include a diverse program of workshops, affinity group meetups, and performances by LGBTQ+ Nikkei. The conference will feature speakers from across the U.S. and Japan to touch on topics including marriage equality in Japan, LGBTQ+ inclusion in faith spaces, transgender experiences, and lessons from queer Japanese American history.
The event, originally planned for 2020, will be Okaeri’s fourth conference. Okaeri’s first conference in 2014 was the first-ever gathering focused on LGBTQ+ Nikkei (Japanese Americans) and attracted over 200 attendees from across the U.S. and Canada. Subsequent conferences in 2016 and 2018 were equally successful, with Japanese language programming added for the first time in 2018.
Many LGBTQ+ Nikkei are estranged from their families and the Japanese American community. The need for acceptance, healing, and the undoing of homophobia and transphobia continues. Okaeri’s leaders hope the conference will facilitate LGBTQ+ Nikkei meeting each other and will continue to advance visibility of LGBTQ+ people within the Japanese American community.
Registration is open now. Scholarships are available for those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate.
For more information and conference registration, please visit: https://www.okaeri-losangeles.org/conference