2026 PPA June CLE - A Thorough Examination of LGBTQ+ Pride Month

This training will provide attendees with the opportunity to understand the social. cultural and political influences that contributed to the Stonewall Riots, which laid the foundation for the modern-day Pride movement in the United States, as well as contemporary events that continue to inspire and motivate LGBTQ+ activists in the United States. 

Attendees will gain an understanding of how anti-sodomy laws, which outlawed homosexual behavior until 2003, following the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, as well as the Lavender Scare and the categorization of LGBTQ+ people as pathologized by the field of psychiatry, contributed to the Gay Liberation movement of the 1970s which ultimately culminated in the modern day Pride movement. Attendees will also gain a rudimentary understanding of terminology and the overall experiences of LGBTQ+ people. 

The content included in this training is apolitical and does not endorse any specific political party or candidate for public office; nor does it undermine or discount any individual's expressed political and or religious beliefs. 

Presented by Jason Van Ness 

Jason Van Ness is a licensed social worker with ten years of direct service, advocacy and public speaking; primarily within the child welfare arena. Jason is also an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church of the United States (PC USA). During his time at the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a master’s of social work in 2023, Jason began working as a freelance journalist and was inspired to pursue law school due to the increase of Christian nationalism in the United States. Jason has been featured in The Advocate, and The Freedom From Religion Foundation and published his first book in 2024 titled Jesus Over the Rainbow: 10 Anti-LGBTQ+ Myths in the Christian Right. Jason is now enrolled in a post baccalaureate paralegal certificate program to bolster his chances of being accepted into law school and is preparing to take the law school admissions test in the fall of 2027. When Jason is not busy writing, researching or in direct service, he enjoys coparenting two adorably dysfunctional dogs (Bella and Frankie) with his husband and is an avid cross fitter and Golden Girls enthusiast.