We Are Everywhere
Students attend the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference hosted at Northern Michigan University
Every fall, LGBTQ+ college students from around the Midwest region gather at the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference (MBLGTACC). The conference was first held in February 1993 at Iowa State University a way to give voice to queer students in the Midwest. For over 30 years, MBLGTACC has been hosted throughout the region and will make its first appearance in North Dakota next fall in October 2025.
To the shores of Gichigami (Lake Superior)
This year, the Pride Center took 5 undergraduate and 3 graduate students to the conference in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Students attended presentation sessions from other college students and higher education professionals covering a variety of topics from Queer and Trans Joy to gender biases in higher education and Neroqueerness to the impacts of student activism.
One student shared, “MBLGTACC provided me with the opportunity to learn more about myself through others, empowered me to enact change in my community, and encouraged me to care for and connect with myself and others.”
MBLGTACC provides a place for students to explore their queer and trans identities, to learn from peers, and think about ways they can implement what they have learned at their own institutions.
Students also attended a keynote session by Max Mowitz, the executive director of One Iowa and One Iowa Action, leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations that focus on uplifting and empowering LGBTQ+ Iowans. The second keynote was Giiweden, an Anishinaabe Two-Spirit water protector of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin who grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. Giiwedin uses social media to share about their culture, Indigenous and environmental issues, and queer Indigenous history.
Embracing the Theme
The conference theme “We are Everywhere” emphasizes that queer and trans people are not just living in urban environments or in specific states, but we are everywhere. We are in rural communities, in the upper peninsula of Michigan, scattered throughout the Midwest and even in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Pride Center director, Dr. Jeff Maliskey co-presented at the Conference with Milton Gómez-Toledo, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City on “We Already Are Everywhere; Justifying our Existence.” The presentation and skill-lab focused on ways queer and trans (QT) resource center professionals in higher education can leverage archives, artifacts, and data in ways to tell the story of QT folks on campus readily to institutional stakeholders and campus leadership.
Maliskey shares, “telling our stories and giving examples of the work we have done and continue to do at the University of North Dakota is so important to support the work of QT professionals. We are doing some pretty cool work, leading the way for queer and trans inclusion in the state; we have an obligation to share that work with others for the benefit of the community.”
Next year, the conference will be held at North Dakota State University. For the first time in 33 years, North Dakota will be the last state in the region to have hosted the conference.
