“They really educated us to deal with certain people in the community, to go out there and be part of it,” said Gardette Hutton, an attendee from Columbia University. “The whole conference itself was very educational and very inspirational.”

Although overall he gave the conference a “thumbs up,” Kapena J. Baptista ’16, who did not attend the conference but followed its formation, said that he would like to see an even broader range of topics examined in future conferences. “There are other issues, and there should be equal attention given to these topics.”

Baptista serves as co-chair of Harvard College GLOW, a group for queer students of color. He was also one of the most vocal of those who protested on Facebook when conference organizers announced Daniel K. “Dan” Savage, a well-known sex columnist and writer on queer issues, would be a speaker at the conference. Savage, who Baptista and others argued has made transphobic and biphobic comments in the past, later canceled his appearance due to scheduling conflicts.

Organizers said that they plan to continue the conference and noted the possibility of increasing the number of schools involved.

“We’re meeting next week to turn inaugural into annual,” said Ana I. Mendy ’09, a conference co-chair and a student at the Business School.

—Staff writer Quynh-Nhu Le can be reached at quynhnhule@college.harvard.edu.