Queer and Now Conference

• Tuesday, April 21, 2026 – 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Conference Rooms A&B, Campus Center, and 3–5 p.m. in the MCC
• Keynote speaker: Rayceen Pendarvis, renowned event host, inspirational speaker and Washington, D.C.–based community activist 

Includes lunch, two-spirit drum circle, art workshop, DJ and drag show

Queer and Now is the annual LGBTQ+ conference at De Anza College that focuses on the larger and local LGBTQ+ community, student success, equity, intersectionality and social justice concerns.

This year, the 12th annual Queer and Now conference will focus on the theme, "Queer Lineages to Liberation." 

Cosponsored by the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education and the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. 

For questions or accommodations, please email Jamie Pelusi at pelusijamie@deanza.edu.

Meet Our Keynote Speaker: Rayceen Pendarvis 

Rayceen Pendarvis is an event host, community advocate, self-described gender-blender and lifelong Washingtonian. As an inspirational speaker, enthusiastic promoter, renowned host of numerous LGBTQ events and champion of many local causes in the nation's capital, Rayceen has earned the monikers High Priestess of Love, Queen of the Shameless Plug, Empress of Pride and Goddess of D.C.

 

Over the past five decades, Rayceen's advocacy has focused on causes including civil rights, gender equality, LGBTQ liberation, safer sex education, healthcare, housing, D.C. statehood and voting. Numerous honors bestowed upon this community leader have included those from D.C. Black Pride in 1998 and Capital Pride in 2016. In 2021, the D.C. Council passed the Rayceen Pendarvis Recognition Resolution, and the LGBTQ newspaper the Washington Blade named Rayceen its Local Hero. 

 

Rayceen continues to host Pride celebrations, community gatherings and other events, often in partnership with Team Rayceen Productions, and is active on several social media platforms, which are accessible via Rayceen.com.

Meet Wakan Wiya

Wakan Wiya (Sacred Woman) Two Spirit Drum is our Native American drum founded and led by IndigeQueer community in the Bay Area. Our drum was gifted to us to support access to drum medicine for our IndigeQueer and two-spirit peoples, our friends and familia, so that we might return to our Native drum traditions where healing medicine is for all. Our intertribal circles are open to everyone, while always centering two-spirit and Indigequeer QTBIPOC people and their healing. We ask everyone who attends to be respectful of this focus. Follow the Two Spirit Drum at WakanWiyaDrum on Instagram. 

 

Drumkeeper M. Zamora is a Chicana, Yaqui and Tongva IndigeQueer feminist educator and community organizer. Their ancestors come from the Los Angeles Basin and northern Mexico’s Sonora and Chihuahua regions. They have served as ceremonial singer/drumkeeper in their two-spirit community for 20 years. Zamora has led several drums.

Meet Naomi Takata Shepherd

Naomi Takata Shepherd is a Bay Area–based artist who works in a variety of mediums including block printing, hand-drawn/digital illustration, book arts and watercolor.

 

She draws inspiration from the natural world, her heritage and tasty snacks. For more of her work, art process and events visit her Instagram at naomimarikocreates.

 

Meet the Drag Performers

Landa Lakes

Originally from Oklahoma but based in San Francisco, Landa Lakes's career spans decades and platforms, although her name is mostly linked to the two-spirit drag community.

 

In addition to serving as a board member of Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS), a community-based volunteer organization offering culturally relevant activities for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex Native Americans of the Bay Area, she also serves on the GLBT Historical Society board, the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco and the Two Spirit & Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity. She has utilized drag to raise funds and awareness for communities.

 

Helixir

Winner of the 2022 San Francisco Drag King Contest and a proud member of the Rebel Kings of Oakland, this Black, queer, trans nonbinary drag king is your local emo softboi and the dapper daddy of your dreams!

 

He’s also a barber at Golden Roots Barber Lounge in Oakland who brings gender euphoria to his community via haircut. Follow on Instagram at helixirdrag.

 

Silvanna Danniels

Latin royalty from Mexico City since 1990, living the American dream since 2018, the one and only Silvanna Danniels is an actress, model, singer and dancer, and also a compulsive liar. Halftime drag queen and full-time delusional.