Attorney Elizabeth Birch, who led the Human Rights Campaign from 1995 to 2004, was the keynote speaker at Lambda Network at Kodak's first Education Event with Management in 1995, and at their tenth Education Event in 2005 (shown here). Birch will return to Rochester to provide a keynote address on the LGBTQ Workplace Equality Movement Today at the Picturing Equality Symposium on September 18, 2026. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Join us for two days of talks and discussions about LGBTQ workplace rights, queer photography, and museum education, in conversation with the exhibition Picturing Equality: The Lambda Network at Kodak in Gallery Obscura. Friday's panel on the history and current status of the LGBTQ workplace equality movement will feature Rochester native, former Kodak and Xerox IT consultant, and trans activist Donna Rose, who worked to get trans healthcare covered by corporate health insurance plans; and attorney Elizabeth Birch, who gave keynote addresses at Lambda's first and ten-year anniversary educational event, and served as executive director of the Human Rights Campaign from 1995–2004.
Saturday will feature talks on queer family photography by University of Toronto historian Elspeth Brown; on transgender workers' legal activism by RIT historian Shay Olmstead; on Digital Queers and High Tech Gays and queer cyber activism in the 1990s by McGill University historian Alex Ketchum; and on utilizing museums to teach queer history by Colgate University historian Monica Mercado.
Please note: Keynote speakers on Friday evening and Saturday morning are free for all with no registration. Attendance at Saturday panel sessions is limited and requires advance free registration. Detailed schedule to follow shortly.
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