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Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab

  2. Events

Events

The LGBTQ+ Policy Lab hosts and co-sponsors programming for the Vanderbilt and broader community each year.

Events and programming include:

  • Film screenings in partnership with iLens and Belcourt Theatre (e.g. Boy Erased)
  • Guest lectures from visiting faculty, community organizations, and political leaders (e.g. Karl Dean, former mayor of Nashville)
  • Prof. Carpenter, Director of the Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab, and Alyson Win (’20), Communications Chair of the Asian American Student Association, hosted George Takei for a Q&A session after he delivered the 2019 Chancellor’s Lecture.

With support from the Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality in the Vanderbilt Divinity School launched a Faith and LGBTQ Public Policy Cohort in 2020.

  • The cohorts are a collaborative learning experience that equips participants from across the Vanderbilt and greater Nashville communities to understand how Christianity has been weaponized to enforce anti-LGBTQ+ policy and to explore the ways that faith resources and practices can be utilized to build equity and liberation.
  • “Our ultimate goal is to expand the cohort regionally using a train-the-trainer model that trains advocates for LGBTQI public policy issues,” shared Prof. Armour who serves as Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality which has addressed religious bias as a significant barrier to LGBTQ inclusion and equality for over 25 years.