We’re sorry. We made a mistake.

Making a commitment to inclusion and social justice means doing the hard work of evaluating yourself and recognizing and owning when you make a mistake.  Yesterday, we were excited to announce Laverne Cox as our closing speaker for the 2015 Convention in Tampa.  Cox is one of the stars of the hit television series  Orange is the New Black and brings forward an important message of inclusion, particularly around issues of gender identity and expression.  In our excitement to make the announcement, we made the unfortunate choice to include the tagline, “#ACPA15 is the New Black” as a play on the title of the hit show so many of our members know and love.  What we did not think through were the racial implications this had when juxtaposed next to our images and marketing.  We were so excited to surface these important issues and the perspective Laverne Cox will bring to our members, that we failed in our announcement.

College student educators have important work to do to make sure all of our students and colleagues are able to learn in a safe and welcoming environment.  Millions of trans-identified individuals experience bias, hatred, violence and the threat of death every day.  We hope that our mistake doesn’t overshadow this.  We believe it is too important of an issue.

We are sorry that our efforts to surface these issues resulted in an unintended impact that may have hurt and marginalized our members and others.  We strive to learn, and are excited by the opportunities we’ll have to learn from Laverne Cox in March and as we move forward in the future.