Wednesday at Equality Forum

Equality Forum kicks into high gear today with three separate discussions and the official opening of a fine art exhibition.

Starting at 2:30, The University of the Arts hosts “The Medium of Deconstruction: Photographic Journeys in Gender Variance” at the Terra Room Photo Studio where one of this year’s featured artists Lorenzo Triburgo discusses his “Transportraits.”

Triburgo – who hails from the Pacific Northwest – has been chronicling the lives of transgendered men for several years. He’ll discuss the process and how the images relate to interpretations of gender throughout art history.

Art lovers will have the chance to meet the artist, along with photographer Connie Imboden during the 12th Annual Gay and Lesbian Art Exhibit (5-7 p.m.), also at U Arts. Imboden’s photos are featured in collections at prominent museums throughout the U.S., Europe and South America. She recently published Reflections: 25 Years of Photography about her personal artistic journey.

Next up: The National Seniors Panel is produced along with SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) to explore issues related to aging in the gay and lesbian community (7-8:15 p.m.) at the CBS Auditorium at Hamilton Hall. Michael Adams, SAGE’s executive director (and former director of education and public affairs at Lambda Legal), moderates a panel featuring a local and national spokespeople.

Among those participating include Nancy Knauer, professor at law at Temple University who has lectured about the recognition of same-sex relationships as it relates to aging; Michele Mathes, director of education and research programs at CARIE (Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly); and Heshie Zinman, a member of the LGBT Elder Initiative (he’s the former executive director of the AIDS Information Network).

Katherine Sender, professor at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, follows up as moderator of the National History Panel (8:30-9:45 p.m.) also at Hamilton Hall.

The panel will discuss the growth of the LGBTQ movement among young people with panelists including Nathan Belyeu, community programs manager of The Trevor Project; Corey Bernstein, a student and president of the GSA of The Hudson School in Hoboken, N.J. (he testified in support of the state’s anti-bullying law); Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools for the U.S. Department of Education (he founded GLSEN); and Jamie Nabozny, a youth activist who was among the first students to sue a school district for its failure to protect him from antigay harassment (his lawsuit helped to pioneer the safe-schools movement for LGBT teens in the U.S.).

Please check in daily for a schedule of events at Equality Forum through May 1.