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Health Policy

Dear Creating Change attendees and community friends,

This statement will share information about our updated Conference Health Measures for the upcoming Creating Change conference taking place in San Francisco, California from February 17-21, 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and like any large gathering, Creating Change 2023 will raise the risk of spreading COVID and other viral diseases among attendees. Some in our community can accept the risk of attendance and remain safe after vaccination or treatment and by utilizing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

This will be our first in-person Creating Change conference since 2020 in Dallas. While we know that no policy, recommendation, or protocol can address everyone’s public health concerns about attending Creating Change, the Task Force is working to make this year’s conference as safe as possible.

In order to make this conference as safe as possible for everyone, we need to work together. The National LGBTQ Task Force believes we are all responsible for taking care of each other: as a community and as movement partners, we all have a part in making Creating Change a safe(r) and healthy space.

Please keep in mind that people attending Creating Change with you may be going home to households that include the elderly, the very young or people who are immune compromised. We need to think about the well-being of those folks as well.

The Task Force does not require proof of vaccination to register for or attend Creating Change 2023.

Please be aware that the City of San Francisco does not have a mask mandate for public places. In the spirit of community care, the Task Force and Creating Change is instituting the following:

We ask that you not attend the conference if you test positive for COVID-19 or are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or other illnesses (e.g. fever, cough, sore throat) before the conference begins. If you are therefore unable to attend, we will refund your registration in full.

While participating in the Creating Change conference, we strongly encourage masks unless you are presenting or on stage at a plenary. We ask that you wear a high-quality mask such as N95, KF94, or KN95.

We also strongly encourage wearing masks in other hotel spaces.

Remember that wearing a mask keeps you safer even when others in the space are not wearing masks.

We will have masks available at registration and at the doors to the plenary ballroom. The hotel will increase the number of hand sanitizer stations throughout the hotel. We ask that you make use of these.

While all of us will do our best to limit exposure and keep each other safer, it is possible that individuals will test positive for COVID-19 during Creating Change. If you experience symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g. fever, cough, sore throat), please refrain from attending any conference events, remain in your hotel room, and request a COVID-19 test by emailing notifications@glittering-quicksand.flywheelsites.com. You must email positive or negative test results to notifications@glittering-quicksand.flywheelsites.com. If you test negative, you may continue to attend conference events. If you test positive, please do not attend any additional conference events and use the current CDC guidelines, to determine how long you should quarantine.

The Task Force will inform all conference attendees that a fellow participant has tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, if you test positive, we ask that you alert close contacts. Even though San Francisco no longer conducts contact tracing, this is part of what it means to care for one another. It’s our responsibility to each other, as a community.

These recommendations have been developed based on current CDC guidance, guidelines currently in place at our conference venue and hotels, and with input from our larger community. Public health and safety protocols are subject to change.