WYOMISSING, Pa. — Penn State Berks will hold its first Queer Con from 3-7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, in the Perkins Student Center. This inaugural event will feature a presentation by celebrity guest Carson Kressley, television star and LGBTQ+ advocate. Queer Con is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
Inspired by Comic Cons and conventions, Queer Con will be an immersive experience for the LGBTQ+ community and advocates. The theme is "Be Who You Want to Be!" The event will include an expo of 2TLGBQIA+ information tables and vendors and a sensory room will be open during the event.
Queer Con will be held on National Coming Out Day (NCOD), an annual LGBT awareness day observed each year on Oct. 11. The event will feature various breakout sessions starting at 3:30 p.m. dealing with topics such as coming out, intro to drag, intersectionality, and more.
According to Johnée Border, event organizer and assistant director of financial aid, “National Coming Out day has long held significance within the 2TLGBQIA+ community. As we espouse belonging and nurture a culture of inclusion here at Penn State Berks, a reckoning of our language, implicit biases and intersectional impact of ‘coming out’ necessitates further inquisition. While we dig deeper and reflect, we're also elevating and celebrating identities in the 2TLGBQIA+ community that traditionally have been excluded from pop, counter and queer culture. QueerCon is a time to honor ourselves and our community, to learn and make space for everyone to belong.”
Kressley will give a presentation at 6 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium titled "Being your authentic self." He will then moderate a panel composed of Penn State Berks Rainbow Alliance students and hold a question-and-answer session with the audience.
A native of Allentown, Kressley is an Emmy-Award winning TV personality, style expert, fashion designer, interior designer and New York Times best-selling author. He started his career as an independent stylist working with major designers such as Ralph Lauren. He then took a leap into television and became a breakout star on Bravo’s "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," which won a primetime Emmy and gained a worldwide following for Kressley.
Kressley has hosted multiple TV shows including Lifetime’s "How to Look Good Naked" and ABC’s "True Beauty," and he has appeared as a fashion critic and commentator on shows such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Good Morning America." He has competed on several reality shows including NBC’s "Celebrity Apprentice," Food Network’s "Celebrity Cupcake Wars," ABC’s "Celebrity Family Feud" and the 13th season of "Dancing with the Stars." He also starred in an interior design show, "Get A Room with Carson & Thom," which reunited Kressley with his co-star from "Queer Eye," interior designer Thom Filicia.
At present, Kressley continues in his role as judge on the TV series "RuPaul’s Drag Race," which continues to win multiple Emmy's and is currently in its 16th season. He won an Emmy last year for his part on the show and is nominated again this year. In addition, he has co-hosted several talk shows and been a guest on many game shows.
A strong supporter of many philanthropic causes, Kressley is involved with the American Humane Society and is a member of the board of directors of Cyndi Lauper’s nonprofit organization, True Colors United, which helps homeless LGBT youth.
Queer Con is sponsored by the Penn State Berks DEIB Committee, the Berks Arts and Lecture Series, and the Rainbow Alliance student organization.
For more information on Queer Con, contact Border at 610-396-6073 or JCB6176@psu.edu.