About SOGIEcon
An LGBTQ+ Youth Conference with 30 Years of Impact
SOGIEcon (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression Conference) is an LGBTQIA+ youth conference which brings together people from all over the country. Each year, SOGIEcon brings together LGBTQIA+ youth, their peers, allies, family members, educators, social workers, clinicians, clergy, and community members to learn, connect, and support the next generation of LGBTQIA+ leaders.
Participants choose from nearly 200 workshops, performances, and activities organized around specific groups and audiences, creating a rich, immersive experience unlike any other convening in the country.
SOGIEcon has always been more than a conference. It is a public good, an intervention for those in need, a statewide and national resource, and a powerful demonstration of what becomes possible when institutions commit to the wellbeing of young people who are too often marginalized or excluded.
Our Mission
To empower, inspire, and support LGBTQIA+ youth, and all those who care about them, through transformative workshops, inspiring keynote speakers, and meaningful opportunities for connection. SOGIEcon fosters a community where every individual can thrive and be celebrated.
Our Vision
A world in which every LGBTQIA+ young person grows up knowing they are seen, valued, and supported ,in their schools, their families, their communities, and society at large. SOGIEcon exists to make that world more possible, one year at a time.
Guiding Principles
- Youth-Centered: Young people are not the audience for this work, they are its leaders. SOGIEcon centers youth voice, agency, and lived experience in all programming and decision-making.
- Affirmation and Belonging: Every attendee deserves to feel fully seen, celebrated, and welcomed. SOGIEcon is an explicitly affirming space for LGBTQIA+ youth and all who support them.
- Education Across Systems: From classrooms to clinics to child welfare, the adults who serve LGBTQIA+ youth must be equipped to do so effectively. SOGIEcon offers rigorous, evidence-informed professional programming alongside youth tracks.
- Community and Connection: Many attendees arrive not knowing a single other LGBTQIA+ person. SOGIEcon creates lasting bonds across generations, geographies, and identities.
- Equity and Access: No young person should be excluded due to cost. Scholarship support, transportation assistance, and accessible programming are fundamental to our model.
- Roots in Social Work: SOGIEcon was born from social work values. Person-in-environment thinking, systems awareness, and commitment to human dignity have guided this conference from its very first day.
- University-Community Partnership: SOGIEcon has always been strengthened by its connection to the University of Connecticut, not as a distant institution, but as a place where young people come to see themselves reflected and to imagine themselves belonging.
SOGIEcon & UConn
For many participants, SOGIEcon represents their first experience on a university campus as a place where they are genuinely welcomed, affirmed, and seen. The impact of this is lasting. Many SOGIEcon attendees go on to apply to and enroll at UConn, carrying with them a sense of belonging rooted in this early connection.
As Connecticut’s land- and sea-grant university, UConn has a responsibility not only to generate knowledge, but to apply that knowledge in service of the public good. SOGIEcon is a direct expression of that mandate, strengthening connections between the University and K–12 schools, community-based organizations, healthcare providers, and public agencies across the state and region.
The UConn Rainbow Center leads the conference in partnership with the School of Social Work, the National SOGIE Center, UConn Events, and a growing network of university and community collaborators. Founder Robin McHaelen continues to support the transition, ensuring that the history, relationships, and institutional wisdom built over 30 years travel seamlessly into this new chapter.
“I am still speechless at how moving last Wednesday was for me and my students. They were asking if we could come back next year all day, so I’d love to do whatever I/we can to ensure the conference can happen again.”