For those of you in New York State, this is a fantastic opportunity to network and learn like never before. I’m especially excited about the day long Trans institute. To download the overview, click here.

In Our Own Voices, Inc. and The New York State Black Gay Network, Inc. will be hosting the first statewide LGBT People of Color Health Summit on February 21-24, 2008. The Health Summit’s theme is: Unity through Diversity: Shifting Our Focus This inaugural event is designed to provide a forum for the articulation of issues and recommendations related to health and human service interventions for LGBT people of color. Scholars, administrators, activists and students are invited to share their knowledge and skills with the hope that this interchange will result in a compendium of future strategies designed to address the needs of LGBT people of color. A distinguishing feature of the health summit is the inclusion of planning strategy workshops to enable presenters and participants to frame the presentations and conversations into a health and human service strategy for subsequent policy and programmatic undertakings.

The summit will focus on five major conceptual tracks:

• Health and Wellness
• Substance Abuse
• Spirituality
• Political Advocacy
• A day long institute on Transgender issues

One major outcome of this undertaking will be the publication of a summit report highlighting the major observations and current strategies related to the above topics with attached recommendations for future research, political advocacy, and community based interventions. Specific objectives and outcomes are listed below.

Objectives

The LGBT People of Color Health Summit will serve the following objectives:

• Review and update the community on current research findings, community based interventions, and state and local level strategies addressing the needs of the LGBT people of color community;

• Identify the prominent issues impacting the LGBT people of color community which remain “invisible” to the mainstream health and human service system;

• To identify the gaps in effective and efficient health and human services for LGBT people of color within New York State;

• To prioritize future health and human services strategies that will address the perceived needs of LGBT people of color community.

Outcomes

The effectiveness of the first statewide LGBT People of Color Summit will be measured based on the following outcomes:

• A defined set of issues and areas requiring further exploration will be listed;

• A preliminary series of next-steps related to planning, advocacy and program interventions will be highlighted;

• Summit participants will identify their respective roles in furthering the summit recommendations over the next twelve months; and,

• There will be increased knowledge and awareness of the issues and potential strategies addressing the needs of LGBT people of color as measured by a survey of Summit participants.

In case you haven’t heard, the newest buzz in the sex toy world is being created by a little vibrator called SaSi. What you may not have known is that Babeland is the exclusive carrier of this new wonder!

SaSi is a vibrator that has a memory. This means, it learns what you like and does more of those things and less of the things you don’t like. What an amazing idea! The toy is a little nub that has silicone over it. The nub moves in all sorts of interesting ways and vibrates as well. When you get to a movement and a vibration you like, just press a button and the toy will remember that you like it. If you don’t like it, just skip to the next one.

As Wired says:

The SaSi takes the best of the Je Joue — soft surface material, firm massage finger, sensual movements — and simplifies the control so all you have to do is press a button to say “yay” or “nay” to a particular movement. It also has buttons to control speed and to add or remove vibration.

It’s the first intimate device I’ve seen that remembers your preferences — and then deliberately steps outside those boundaries from time to time, to see what else you might like.

If you want to see SaSi for yourself, it’s going to be at the LoveLA Expo this Saturday, January 27 at Babeland’s booth from 3-5pm.

If you want to own SaSi, you can pre-order now on our website. It will be shipping in April, I believe.

To see the SaSi in action, check out this great video from Fleshbot (NSFW) from the AVN awards. It really helped me understand how terrific this toy is.

I just wanted to take a moment to encourage anyone who lives in New York and has this Sunday night free to come to the love letter writing workshop at our Soho store. Rachel Kramer Bussel is teaching and not only is she fantastic in general, but she writes very hot erotica so I know that her letter writing skills will be awesome as well.

Here’s a quote from a letter she posted on her blog:

Is it possible to love someone before we’ve even kissed? Even if we never end up kissing? Before we’ve even spent more than a few moments alone? I don’t even know what it is about you that so attracts me. I get totally flustered around you. I’ve been told that my face gets red when I talk about you, and I’m sure it’s true.

I’m really looking forward to this because it’s my anniversary a few days later and I want to get some ideas for what to say in my card. I never know keep from sounding cheesy, or to find the best ways to get my feelings down on paper. I want to write eloquently and memorably but it always ends up sounding like, “you’re great, I love you” to me which isn’t very original.

So, Rachel, bring it on! I’m ready to learn. I hope I’ll see you there.