Identifying Gender … or Not

This speaker participated in our 2018 Conference. Learn more about our 2023 conference speakers here.

Saturday, May 19 | 9:00am-9:30am

Writings like The Story of X (by Lois Gould first published in Ms. In 1972) and chapter 7 of Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness set out a vision of a society in which gender need not be labeled. Such a society seems Utopian to many of us. But with various forms of gender bias still existing, do we need to make our gender identities explicit? Using the current battles for the fair treatment of all genders as a backdrop, this session looks at the competing interests of identity politics and a world in which identities of gender, race, religion, etc. are irrelevant.

Lori Lipman-Brown

Lori Lipman Brown served as the first Director of the Secular Coalition for America from 2005 – 2009 representing nontheists in the halls of Congress and in media appearances including The Colbert Report, The O’Reilly Show, USA Today, BBC America (radio). Brown, a former lawyer and educator, served in the Nevada State Senate in the early 1990’s where she authored the successful repeal of that state’s anti-gay consensual sex crime law.

Brown authored a chapter of 50 Voices of Disbelief, Why We Are Atheists (editor Russell Blackford, 2009); and she is quoted extensively in American Secularism, Cultural Contours of Nonreligious Belief Systems (Joseph O. Baker & Buster G, Smith, 2015). More recently, Brown’s work on LGBT issues in Nevada is included in Dennis McBride’s Out of the Neon Closet, Queer Community in the Silver State (2017).

Awards include Freethought Backbone Award from the Secular Student Alliance, Civil Libertarian of the Year from the Southern Nevada chapter of the ACLU, Legislator of the Year from Nevada Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, Friend of the Center award from the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, Mark DeWolfe Award from Interweave Continental, and Out Las Vegas Bugle Foundation Award.

Brown obtained her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law in 1983, and her B.A. in communications from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1981. She is currently working for an IT company.