White House to hold LGBT housing, homeless conference

The White House will continue a series on LGBT issues with a housing and homelessness conference in Detroit on March 9.

The event will include a speech by Housing & Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The White House Office of Public Engagement is organizing the event in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Ruth Ellis Center.

The first White House LGBT conference took place in Philadelphia on Feb. 16 with a focus on health issues.

About 300 people from 22 states attended the event at Jefferson University, where Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius delivered a keynote address.

John Berry, OPM director and the highest-ranking openly gay official in the federal government, opened the conference.

Sebelius spoke about efforts to guarantee hospital visitation and medical decision-making protections for LGBT families and emphasized the impact of the Affordable Care Act and health reform on the LGBT community.

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