Coming Up

THE LGBTQIA+ EXPERIENCE IN YOGA 

An Online Discussion for Everyone feat. David Kam, Gabi Parkham, Jacoby Ballard, Sarah Vallance and Jordan Hope Miller

Saturday 26th February 5 - 6:30pm UK

(12-1:30pm ET USA / 9-10:30am PT)

​

RESERVE YOUR PLACE HERE

​

​

An Online discussion for EVERYONE featuring Gabi Parkham (she/her) featuring David Kam (he/him) Jacoby Ballard (he/they) Sarah Vallance (they/she) Jordan Hope Miller / Crow (he/him ). All Yoga Teachers, Facilitators, Studio Owners & Students, Allies, Activists and Interested are welcome - all profits in aid of our community outreach program.

​

Donate what you can afford !

​

Yoga is a practice that should be available to ALL, but we know that many people feel excluded & unwelcome in mainstream yoga classes. Yoga classes are often very heteronormative and cisnormative spaces.

Join us for this vital discussion with a guest panel of LGBTQIA+ yoga teachers - hosted by Gabi Parkham (she/her) featuring David Kam (he/him) Jacoby Ballard (he/they) Sarah Vallance (they/she) Jordan Hope Miller / Crow (he/him) for an open conversation that will explore the experience of LGBTQIA+ people in yoga. We'll be talking about making yoga spaces as LGBTQIA+ friendly as possible, queering yoga itself, and intersectionality. About safety, inclusion, equity & justice. Micro aggressions and discrimination. Pregnancy. Pronouns. Whatever comes up for our panel and whatever you want to ask or discuss. We will save time at the end for questions and comments from the audience and the conversation will be recorded for everyone who signs up.

​

If you want to feel more confident supporting LGBTQIA+ students in your classes and learn how you can encourage more LGBTQIA+ people to practice yoga, then this conversation is definitely for you.

We will take an intersectional, trauma sensitive, anti-racist, & body positive approach as we investigate discrimination, oppression, power, & LGBTphobia.

​

At the end of this discussion you will:

​

•Feel more confident supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Non-Binary, Intersex, Asexual, Queer and Questioning students in your classes and studios

​

•Understand the context of LGBTQIA+ experiences in the Yoga space

​

• Have a greater understanding of power, privilege, and how to be an ally for LGBTQIA+ people in your community

 

----

Born and raised in Brighton (UK), Gabi Parkham (she/her) has been practicing yoga since childhood. In the last 5 years, Gabi has been an active LGBTQIA+ equity educator and consultant; leading LGBTQIA+ trainings in various settings including running her own workshops for yoga teachers and a 6-month mentoring programme for LGBTQIA+ yoga teachers.. In 2018 Gabi co-founded Laviot (www.laviot.org), a social and supportive community for LGBT+ Jewish women and non-binary people. Gabi is passionate about finding equity and justice through yoga and making as many yoga classes as possible safer spaces for LGBT+ people. Yoga should be a space free from assumptions, micro aggressions, and discrimination.

​

 

David Kam (he/him) is a Malaysian, queer, movement artist based in London. His work centres on wellness at the intersection of play culture, joyful activism and embodied placemaking. Weaving 10 years of multimodal research across architecture, dance and yoga, David creates mindful experiences as brave spaces to explore the wonder in wellbeing, particularly within communities of colour and LGBTQ+ communities. David is the founder of kindredpacket, a grassroots movement uplifting East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) communities and beyond through intergenerational storytelling, culturally sensitive wellbeing practices and collective care. David is a lululemon ambassador.

​

Sarah Vallance (they/she) is a queer, nonbinary, pansexual, small-fat, white, able-bodied yoga teacher who lives in Cheltenham, UK. They have been practising yoga for just over 6 years and teaching for 2 years. They love sharing yoga which is accessible for all and regularly teach in care homes, independent living spaces, and local studios. Sarah’s favourite personal practises include chair yoga and bed yoga, but they love sharing mat-based and restorative practises, along with LGBTQIA+ inclusive pregnancy yoga.

​

Jordan Hope Miller/ Crow (he/him) is a 34 year old Spiritual Mentor, Teacher and Artist from Long Island, New York. He has traveled all over the world on a path of spirituality and self healing. Joy and altruism are his heart based values, and he currently works with a diverse group of folks locally and internationally guiding them and sharing gifts of self empowerment that he has learned along the way. As a transgender person of color and mixed racial background adding to the diversity of representation in the Health and Wellness industry is his life purpose.

​

Jacoby Ballard (he/they) is a social justice educator and yoga teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah. He leads workshops and trainings around the country on diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a yoga teacher with 20 years of experience, he leads workshops, retreats, teacher trainings, teaches at conferences, and runs the Resonance mentorship program for certified yoga teachers to find their niche and calling. In 2008, Jacoby co-founded Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn, to work at the nexus of healing and social justice. Since 2006, Jacoby has taught Queer and Trans Yoga, a space for queer folks to unfurl and cultivate resilience and received Yoga Journal's Game Changer Award in 2014 and Good Karma Award in 2016. Jacoby has taught in schools, hospitals, non profit and business offices, a maximum security prison, a recovery center, a cancer center, LGBT centers, gyms, a veteran’s center, and yoga studios. His first book, A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation came out in 2021. jacobyballard.net.

​

​

​

RESERVE YOUR PLACE HERE