written by Juniper Nilsson, BS’ 27, Gender Studies + Urban Ecology
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This semester, I got to go to the 2025 Creating Change conference in Las Vegas, NV at the Rio Hotel and Casino. What an experience! But first, some context.
The Creating Change conference was started by the National LGBTQ Task Force in the 1980s as a way to improve community collaboration for queer people. Over the years, the conference has evolved to show more facets of the LGBTQ+ community, including its unique aspects and heritage. This year’s conference took place amidst a backdrop of considerable uncertainty. The legal status of civil rights and protections for LGBTQ+ people, especially those that identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming, has been somewhat tenuous recently. It is a prescient time to be learning about community advocacy, at a time in our nation’s history where a lot of change is happening.
The three pillars of the conference, and the task force behind it, are all in service of a similar goal: to make the world more just. The National LGBTQ Task Force suggests participants do that in three key ways:
- To build and uplift the LGBTQ+ movement
- To provide skills-building workshops and networking opportunities
- To advance social justice and equality for LGBTQ+ people
At Creating Change, there are several ways for attendees to learn and grow their activism skills and put these principal pillars into action. The 2025 iteration of the conference had a variety of panels at which different community members presented findings, studies, and experiences from their own communities with the hope that this information would be helpful to others to take home with them. Workshops throughout the course of the conference provided various opportunities for attendees to engage in a variety of activities. For example, one workshop focused on how apply activist ideologies at a hyperlocal scale; another centered-on education about sanctuary cities that have developed in the Midwest (sanctuary cities are cities that choose not to comply with laws they deem discriminatory against vulnerable populations such as undocumented immigrants and queer people). There was also space for craftivism with one workshop teaching bracelet-making with pride colors and several others that taught skills to build crafts in the style of a particular culture or historical context.
All of these exhibitions of communal knowledge and crowdsourced experience had quite the impact on me. First, I decided to run in the University of Utah’s student government to become Transform’s ASUU Senator, a position I currently occupy. During my time as a representative of the U’s student body, I aim to use the skills I’ve learned from Creating Change and the people I met there to make this campus work better for everyone. This could happen in multiple ways, such as increasing the accessibility of campus venues and events, making the ASUU government more transparent and responsive, and helping every student feel a sense of belonging.
Creating Change did just that, with each of its participants: teaching us valuable skills and techniques for community building, organization, and outreach. For my part, I have shared the skills and tools gleaned from my time at the conference with countless friends and acquaintances so that they are better prepared to make their communities better. In this time, it is crucial that we take care of those around us. Sharing knowledge and practicing community care are two effective strategies to help us do just that.
Finally, I am so proud to have been a part of 2025 Pride Week. On Friday, March 28, my peers from the conference joined me in the Panorama East room in the Union to share what we learned. Our group spoke on topics ranging from the history of the conference, to the specific challenges facing minoritized communities, to the future of what community advocacy looks like. It was really meaningful to be in a space where I could talk about putting the knowledge I gained into practice, in this campus community I care so much about, alongside the friends I gained along the way.
I would like to thank Student Leadership and Involvement at the University of Utah for making this experience possible, Anna Nguyen for being a supportive companion to us, the students of Transform for believing in me enough to elect me to represent them, the National LGBTQ Task Force for hosting the conference, the staff of the Rio for being so gracious, and all the changemakers out there that create change in our society every day. I do this work with and for you.