This weekend, Harvard grad schools made history by hosting the first campus wide conference dedicated to LGBTQ issues. The conference connected students, alumni and many significant members of the LGBTQ community. Ken Mehlman was invited to participate in an interview with Baruch Shemtov and also gave the closing keynote speech. This conference broke ground for what the school hopes will become an annual event designed to explore and address critical issues for the LGBTQ community. The conference gave an in depth look at how far the conversation about LGBTQ issues has come since the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the symbolic beginning of the LGBTQ movement. Students from various Harvard grad schools came together to plan this event with the hopes of strengthening bonds between the schools. Ken Mehlman joined other important figures in the LGBTQ community including Brian Rolfes, a partner at McKinsey, former hockey star Caitlin Cahow, and inspirational speaker Ash Beckham. Mehlman addressed the challenges he faces as an openly gay politician and inspired conversation among students with similar career aspirations. The conference aims to be one of the biggest conferences among LGBTQ students in the world over the coming years. It drew a crowd of over 400 students from around the world. In addition to Harvard, participating schools included Yale, Boston University, Penn State and the London Business School. As he inspired students to be confident in their own identity, Ken Mehlman closed the conference proclaiming, “There’s nothing more powerful than coming out and being who you are.”