It’s sufficient to say that Houston is full of surprises. In recent past, it shocked the rest of the United States by becoming the largest American city to elect an openly gay mayor, and of course we’ve gone on to reelect her twice now. This event put the Texas city on the “national radar” of the LGBT movement. It’s pretty clear that with Annise Parker’s election, the city of Houston created change in the country’s political landscape.

That’s a singular event, but so much has happened and continues to happen for equality throughout Texas everyday. But this week, Houston becomes the national epicenter of the LGBT political and social justice movement. Creating Change— The 26th National Conference on LGBT Equality has landed in the Bayou City, happening now through February 2nd.

The Conference, produced by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is itself a tour-de-force of networking, strategy and development opportunities. Here’s more information directly from the Creating Change Website…

Creating Change (as it’s affectionately known) is the nation’s pre-eminent political, leadership and skills-building conference for the LGBT social justice movement. Since 1988, Creating Change has been the opportunity for thousands of committed people to develop and hone their skills, celebrate victories, build community, and to be inspired by visionaries of our LGBT movement and allied movements for justice and equality.

At the 26th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, we’ll celebrate 26 years of building the grassroots power of our people and families. Over 40,000 people have attended Creating Change to learn, grow and expand their skills and confidence to create change in their communities, their states, this country and the world. For each Creating Change attendee, our annual skills-building and training event is a life-changing experience.

The five day program will feature over 350 workshops led by activists, politicians, public figures from all over the country. Tonight’s keynote speaker for the conference is critically acclaimed actress Laverne Cox.

If you can’t get to Houston this week, be sure to check the Creating Change livestream to watch some of the main events, and on Twitter the #CC14 hashtag is the central hub for social media action.