Now most of America views homosexuality as benign. Gay people were once policed as criminal subversives, depicted in the popular culture as deviants, and pathologized by the medical establishment as mentally ill. Most puzzling for a gathering ostensibly dedicated to the political interests of people discriminated against because of their same-sex attraction was the discussion simply titled “Asexuals.”Īs the topics of conversation at America’s largest assembly of gay activists suggests, America is rapidly becoming a post-gay country. “The Politics of Colony and Post-hurricane Politics in PR and USVI” was another. “Elephant in the Waiting Room: Self-Love, Health, Queering Fat Acceptance” was the title of one workshop. Yet surveying the various panel discussions left me confused. Creating Change, which bills itself as the “foremost political, leadership, and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ social justice movement,” brings together thousands of activists from across the country. In January 2018, the National LGBTQ Task Force held its annual Creating Change conference at a hotel around the corner from where I live in Washington, D.C. I briefly wondered if I had wandered into the wrong conference. Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series about the gay-rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.