Iowa State University students and staff attended the largest and oldest continuously-held LGBTQIA+ conference in the United States this weekend.

The Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) hosted their 26th annual conference at the University of Nebraska Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.

Students from both the Pride Alliance and chosen from The Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success Thrive program attending the conference to learn how to infuse their identities with leadership.

The Thrive program is a leadership development program for LGBTQIA+ emerging leaders at Iowa State. Its goal is to teach students how to lead, learn about what it means to be a LGBTQIA+ leader and to build skills in terms of fostering dialogue and working with others.

The Thrive program also helps students understand their identities in both a broad and diverse context with critical self-reflections that occur at their regular meetings.

Students attended workshops and listened to speakers on topics that range from sexuality to language and history of LGBTQIA+. Workshops also include topics on allyship, including how to make a workplace more accessible and understanding other sexualities and identities.

Assistant Director Clare Lemke shared her excitement about students interacting with students from other campuses and learn about leadership before the conference.

“I’m excited for students to immerse themselves and learn how to be a queer leader, not just a leader who happens to be LGBTQIA+,” Lemke said.

Every year, the conference holds different themes and offers workshops based around the theme. This year’s theme is “All Roads Lead to Intersectionality” and the mission statement for this conference is “to educate queer and trans Midwest college students to empower and celebrate their identities, while enabling them to resist oppression and develop resiliency against personal and societal injustices.”

In addition to the workshops, the conference holds a number of speakers and performers who are well-known in the LGBTQIA+ community. This year includes sessions hosted by CeCe McDonald, a trans woman folk hero, Joshua Allen, a black trans-feminine organizer, Dylan Marron, an IFP Gotham Award & Drama Desk-nominated writer, performer and video maker, and Blair Imani, an African-American Muslim activist and executive director for “Equality for HER.”

Performers this year included Jujubee, an American drag queen and contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and Tori Grace Nichols, a poet, musician, actor, dancer and activist.

Previous keynote speakers and performers include Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Angela Davis, Margaret Cho, Chely Wright and RuPaul Andre Charles.

Iowa State has hosted MBLGTACC in collaboration with Drake University on its first ever Conference in Ames in 1993 and hosted it again in 2008 and 2012.

The conference was held this weekend Feb. 16-18, 2018.