Connecting Struggles, Building Futures: LGBTQIA+ and Spanish-Speaking Communities in Pursuit of Social Equity
Free Registration Required: https://luma.com/2wztnvzx
Panel Description:
This panel brings together the editors and Contributors of “LGBTQIA+ Communities, Pandemics, and Policy Responses: Connecting the Dots” and “Public Administration, Civic Engagement, and Spanish-Speaking Communities” for a cross-book conversation on how marginalized communities organize, advocate, and sustain civic engagement in the face of health crises, structural racism, linguistic exclusion, and democratic backsliding.
Drawing from case studies spanning the AIDS epidemic to COVID-19 and from U.S. mainland cities to Puerto Rico and the broader Spanish-speaking diaspora, panelists will explore how public institutions have too often reproduced inequities—and how community-led responses, nonprofit organizations, and public servants can instead become levers for justice, belonging, and resilience.
Designed by the LGBT Advocacy Alliance Section of ASPA for all participants, the session will foreground social equity as an activist pillar of public administration, emphasizing procedural fairness, access, quality, and outcomes for LGBTQIA+ and Spanish-speaking communities with intersecting identities. Panelists will highlight strategies for inclusive civic participation, multilingual crisis communication, and equity-centered policy design, offering concrete insights for scholars, practitioners, and students committed to transforming public service into a site of liberation rather than exclusion.