Day One!

I arrived in Denver after a slightly delayed flight on Sunday evening around 9:15. After getting the rental and dropping off some co-workers, we arrived at my good family friend Kim's house in Westminster and collapsed.

Monday morning we met up wtih the rest of our partners- Alex Cleghorn, the chair of the Transgender Law Center board; Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality; Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; Lisa Mottett, the Transgender Policy Director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; John Newsome, acting director of And Castro for All; Sarah H., former Hargraves Fellow; Joseph P., Hargraves Fellow and employee at LYRIC; and Clair F., from the Transgender Economic Employment Initiative.

We talked about our role at the convention, how to talk to people, what to say, etc. Mara had some great stories of Conventions past, and gave us some good insight on how to start conversations with people.

We started the day by going to the LGBT Caucus in the Convention Center. The caucus itself was pretty boring- the highlights were hearing Tammy Baldwin and Shannon Minter speak. We made a lot of connections and handed out a lot of buttons and stickers before the caucus- Its a lot scarier than i thought to start conversations with strangers who could very well be high powered legislators!

After the caucus we headed over to the Stonewall Democrats Tea. There was some phenomenal food (scones, tea sandwhiches, REAL CLOTTED CREAM!), and a few more boring speeches- I met Babs Casbar and Amanda Simpson, two of the transgender delegates. I also met Linda Ketner, a amazing out lesbian from South Carolina who's running for Congress.

After Sarah and I spent an hour decompressing in the parking garage (where we got written up by security for being "out of place"), we met up for dinner with Joe, Alex, Clair, and John. After dinner we went to Lannies Clocktower Cabaret and watched Michelle Obama's speech while drinking a beer.

On the way to drop off Clair and Joe at the place they're staying I was pulled over by a Denver cop for some obscure traffic violation. I just got a warning, but it was hard not to ask the cop why he wasnt policing something more significant. He did give us a police escort to where my friends were staying, though.

The weather in Denver is AMAZING. Kim and Kevin have been phenomenal hosts. Their 2 year old daughter is adorable and it's so good to catch up with them (its been over three years since I saw them!).

Today we're going to check out the Youth Caucus, the Labor Caucus, the Women's Caucus and another Stonewall event later tonight. It's busy and crazy, but fun!


Here are pictures!