The First International
Queer Disability Conference
WAS HELD AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
ON JUNE 2 & 3, 2002

The July 2002 issue of BENT
is devoted entirely to coverage of the conference.

We extend our thanks to the participants who generously allowed us to publish their work here as well as those who agreed to share their responses to the conference or to issues raised there. Above all, we acknowledge the grounbreaking work of the conference organizers:

Gene Chelberg
Eli Clare
Laura Hershey
Alison Kafer
John Killacky
Paul Longmore
Samuel Lurie
Corbett O'Toole
Ellen Samuels
Robin Stephens
Jen Williams

Readers of this issue cannot hope to gain more than a sadly incomplete and impressionistic idea of what the conference was like. The real thing was a living presence impossible to reproduce. Sometimes it was a love-in, a few times it threatened to become a brawl. It was bodies and voices and conflict and . . . juice.

To find out about the availability of more conference texts, go to www.disabledwomen.net/queer.

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In this issue you will find:

What's Funny About Identity Politics?
by Bob Guter

Productive Confusion
by Danny Kodmur

Swans in an Ugly Duckling World
by Raymond Luczak

You Can't Say That!
A BENT/Disgaytal Forum on PC Language

Balcony Scenes with a Twist
by Danny Kodmur

Loving You Loving Me
by Samuel Lurie

A Conversation About the Conference
David J. O'Connor Talks to BENT Editor Bob Guter

An Open Letter to the Conference Organizers
from Raymond J. Aguilera

Changing Places
by Angel Jaedeen

Performance Tonight
Five Prose & Performance Art Selections

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BENT: A Journal of CripGay Voices/July 2002