Caitlyn Jenner,
Olympian and Arthur Ashe Courage Award Winner,
to Headline Chicago House 7th Anniversary Speaker Series
Purchase Your Tickets Here
Caitlyn Jenner, Olympian and recent winner of the 2015 Arthur Ashe Courage Award, will serve as the keynote speaker for the 7th annual Chicago House Speaker Series luncheon, being held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Avenue, Thursday, November 12th, from 11:30 am – 2 pm.
Now in its 30th year, Chicago House is
the Midwest’s oldest provider of housing for those impacted by HIV/AIDS
and/or LGBTQ marginalization, and is now home to the nation’s most
comprehensive social service and support programs for transgender
individuals, the TransLife Center.
The Chicago House Speaker Series
luncheon brings awareness to the agency’s founding mission, domestic and
global HIV and AIDS activism, as well as its new strategic focus,
combating LGBTQ poverty and marginalization, while celebrating the
accomplishments Chicago House has achieved locally and raising funds to
support the more than 1,800 men, women and children they serve.
This year’s Speaker Series will be
especially effective at highlighting the marginalization and suffering
disproportionately experienced by transgender individuals. Offending the
values of fairness and equity, transgender men and women face enormous
intertwining barriers to stability due to discrimination, societal and
family rejection, and pervasive hostility. More than a quarter of
transgender persons reports having lost a job due to their gender
identity and more than half reports having difficulty finding a job
because of their identity.
Caitlyn Jenner,
formerly known as Bruce, captured the world’s attention in April 2015
when she revealed to the world that she is a transgender woman. Caitlyn
first told her story during an ABC News 20/20 special interview with Diane Sawyer. The two-hour
primetime show was a ratings smash, drawing 17 million total viewers – the highest for the show in 15 years.
In July, she was honored with the Arthur
Ashe Award for Courage at the 2015 ESPYs. The awards show, which aired
for the first time on ABC, averaged 7.7 million viewers overall, a 253%
increase over past years. Caitlyn is no stranger to media attention or
high achievement. In 1976, Jenner represented the United States and
broke the world record by scoring 8,634 points in the decathlon at the
Olympic Games in Montreal, earning the title of “World’s Greatest
Athlete.” After this incredible accomplishment, Caitlyn was involved in
many projects, spanning sports, business, publishing, film and
television. For years she was perhaps best known for her part on E!
Network’s
Keeping up with the Kardashians,
the highest-rated series in the network’s history, documenting the
daily lives of the Kardashian/Jenner family. In the summer of 2015,
Caitlyn launched her E! Network show, I Am Cait, for which she
is also an executive producer. The show documents her life
post-transition as she learns more about the transgender community, and
allows viewers to meet a diverse group of transgender people.
In her acceptance speech for the Arthur
Ashe Courage Award, Caitlyn Jenner spoke eloquently of the crushing
challenges and discrimination that transgender individuals face:
“All across this country, right now, all
across the world, at this very moment, there are young people coming to
terms with being transgender. They’re learning that they’re different
and they are trying to figure out how to handle that, on top of every
other problem that a teenager has. They’re getting bullied, they’re
getting beaten up, they’re getting murdered and they’re committing
suicide.”
As gender-nonconforming children, 76% of
transgender individuals reports having been bullied by other kids when
they were in school, and 31% reports having been bullied by teachers. A
staggering 90% of transgender individuals has been harassed or
mistreated at work, with almost half being repeatedly and purposefully
referred to by the wrong gender pronoun.
Adds Reverend Stan Sloan, Chief
Executive Officer of Chicago House, “Together, we stand at crossroads of
progress in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ civil equality, but that progress is not
being felt by those who are homeless and low income in those
communities. With the help of its supporters, Chicago House looks
forward to the continued celebration of the lives of individuals and
families that it serves with dignity and respect. On November 12, 2015
you can join Chicago House in building a world of respect for all
people, so we can achieve the same end Caitlyn Jenner called us to
aspire to, and I quote, ‘… from that respect comes a more compassionate
community, a more empathetic society, and a better world for all of
us.’ “
Founded in 1985 as the first HIV and AIDS housing provider in the Midwest, Chicago House has continuously evolved its services to meet the changing needs of those who are living with this disease. Through its housing, prevention and medication adherence programs, plus case management and employment programs, Chicago House
enables them to return to a life of dignity and hope. In June of 2013
Chicago House opened the TransLife Center, offering housing services,
employment services, medical services, legal services and emergency
services, ironically in the same building that served as its former AIDS
Hospice in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood.
As it celebrates its 30th anniversary,
Chicago House looks to its origins focusing on HIV/AIDS, poverty and
LGBTQ persons. Chicago House provides permanent, community-based housing, support services and prevention outreach
to individuals and families struggling with HIV and AIDS, who may also
be affected by poverty, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse,
or gender nonconformity. All Chicago House services are provided without
discrimination and are designed to guide people toward wholeness and
self-sufficiency.
In the Speaker Series’ inaugural year in
2009, Chicago House welcomed President Bill Clinton to kick off what
has now become its largest and most impactful annual fundraising event.
The past six Speaker Series events have featured remarks by great minds
in philanthropy, business, entertainment and politics, including former
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, award-winning actor Whoopi
Goldberg, designer Kenneth Cole, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton and a panel discussion on Gender, Race and Economic
Disparity, featuring LGBTQ advocates Laverne Cox, Jason Collins and
Dustin Lance Black.
The November 12 Speaker Series event
with Caitlyn Jenner expects more than 1,000 attendees, and will kick off
with a VIP reception, followed by a lunch presentation with Ms. Jenner.
Individual tickets start at $200.00, with Premier Seating and VIP
packages available at an additional charge. For more information on
tickets, to become a sponsor, or to host an individual or corporate
table, contact Tyler Lewis at 773.248.5200 (ext. 304)
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