Roots of Change: Men, Sex and Justice Conference

I just returned from the Roots of Change: Men Sex and Justice Conference in Portland, OR. This was the 34th National Conference on Men and Masculinity and the 2nd Biennial Statewide Roots of Change Conference on Sexual Violence Prevention sponsored by the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force and the National Organization for Men Against Sexism.

I first attended a National Conference on Men and Masculinity in 1983.  This was the first time I was exposed to a national network of men dedicated to challenging sexism. As a young man, I was excited to meet other men with a similar commitment.  I found many men who would serve as my role models in the coming years.

26 years later at this conference men and women gathered together to explore how we can engage men in efforts to prevent sexual violence.

There were many keynote speakers: Luoluo Hong of the University of Hawai’I at Hilo spoke about her experiences to support men to forma group to address sexual violence, Byron Hurt shared his journey to becoming an activists and filmmaker to remake masculinity, and Robert Jensen shared his thoughts on pornography.

Prevention Connection will release audio podcasts of some of these presentations soon. I presented on using a social marketing approach to rape prevention.  See my other blog posts about this work.