Lycoming News

Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania issued the following announcement on Nov. 17.

The Lock Haven University President’s Commission on LGBTQ Affairs has announced Jason Landau Goodman will serve as keynote speaker for Lavender Graduation at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 1 in the Parsons Union Building, Multipurpose Room, on the campus of LHU.

WHAT: President of PA Youth Conference to speak at LGBTQ Lavender Graduation

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1

WHERE: Parsons Union Building, Multipurpose Room, on the campus of LHU

WHO: Emily Powell Hodges, 570-484-2480, emp109@lockhaven.edu

A fifth-generation Pennsylvanian, Landau Goodman is the board president of the Pennsylvania Youth Congress Foundation and served as the organization’s first executive director. He has been involved with social justice activism for more than 10 years as the first person to work at the statewide level with LGBTQ youth in the state.

While in college at the University of Pennsylvania, Landau Goodman helped ignite the work of organizing LGBTQ youth leaders throughout the commonwealth in forming an independent and youth-led statewide advocacy movement through PYC. In his role as executive director, he has organized numerous statewide campaigns, presented at dozens of state and national conferences, delivered testimony before city councils and state legislative committees and drafted policies to advance the welfare of Pennsylvania LGBTQ youth.

Landau Goodman began his journey as an advocate in 2009 within his hometown of Lower Merion. Upon learning that there were no non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people in Pennsylvania, he became determined to help pass a local law to do so. After two years of working with civic leaders across the township, which is one of the largest municipalities in the state, the Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted the ordinance. This victory provided him the opportunity to organize with advocates in nearly a dozen other Philadelphia suburbs to pass their own ordinances.

He has received numerous distinctions for his advocacy including being named one of the top 12 LGBTQ student-leaders in the U.S. by Campus Pride. At the University of Pennsylvania, he has served as the vice-chair for political affairs of the Lambda Alliance and the chair of J-Bagel, Penn’s Jewish LGBTQ community. At the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, he served as president of OUTlaw.

In 2015, Landau Goodman was selected by the National Park Service to participate in the official 50th Anniversary Selma to Montgomery March as one of 70 youth from across the country. He spoke at the United Nations for the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in 2017. In 2018, He was appointed to serve as a member of the inaugural Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, an advisory council he helped spearhead the creation of. His work has been profiled in newspapers and blogs across the county and was named a Person of the Year in 2018 by the Philadelphia Gay News.

Landau Goodman completed both an undergraduate and a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is now an environmental lawyer based in Montgomery County.

“LHU values making our campus welcoming and affirming,” said Rick Schulze, acting LGBTQ Commission president. “Lavender Graduation is one means for affirming our LGBTQ and ally students who so often are ignored in society. It is our way of acknowledging diversity and making it part of our campus culture.”

The event is open to the public. Anyone wishing to attend should RSVP to Emily Powell Hodges at emp109@lockhaven.edu or 570-484-2480 by Friday, Nov. 19.

For more information on Lock Haven University, visit www.lockhaven.edu, email admissions@lockhaven.edu, or call 570-484-2011. 

Sign-up for LHU’s new monthly newsletter, LHU & You, to get all of your updates on The Haven and the Lock Haven community. Click here to sign up.

Lock Haven University’s main campus is located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in the scenic mountains of Pennsylvania. The university offers 49 undergraduate majors and certifications with 47 minors and five graduate programs.

LHU is a member of Pennsylvania’s State System, the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 2,300 degree and certificate programs in more than 530 academic areas of study. Nearly 520,000 system alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

Original source can be found here.