Though the fight for LGBT equality has made serious progressive strides recently, the battle in Louisiana is still an uphill effort. A new student organization, the Student Equality Project, aims to advocate for equality on both campus and local levels.
Armand Link, president of Student Equality Project and interdisciplinary studies senior, said he began the group because he felt there was a need for a stronger on-campus advocacy group for LGBT students. While the group’s focus is largely on LGBT issues, Link said the group is open to anyone, including people of all races, creeds, genders and sexual orientations.
Blair Brown, vice president of communications for SEP and a Spanish sophomore, also reiterated the acceptance the group has for diverse members.
“With equality, it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you identify yourself as, no matter what kind of relationship you’re in. You don’t have to label yourself or be associated with a certain culture to join,” Brown said.
Link said a national problem that sometimes affects LGBT organizations is “in-group syndrome,” where members of a certain organization can fall into group thinking. He hopes to avoid this issue by promoting a diverse membership.
Brown said she wants to spread education on LGBT matters to University students and faculty members. She cited a common unintentional blunder about gender.
“Say, for example, you’re in a classroom, and a teacher is using the example of male and female. Although we live in a gender-binary society, that’s still not including a lot of people and the trans community people who don’t identify themselves as male or female. So the teacher points them out and identifies them with a gender, and they don’t feel comfortable with it,” Brown explained.
Brown went on to say SEP would help foster communication between students and teachers to educate them on how to avoid these unintentional mistakes by hosting panels and meetings.
Link and Brown also said they want SEP to create a safe space for LGBT students who can feel unwelcome in a conservative state like Louisiana.
“We recognize that there’s a lot of people out there that support some of the same causes that we do and want to see equal recognition in the form of laws and want people to feel safe,” Link said. “We think there’s a huge opportunity for us to get more people involved with this new organization.”
He said even though the legislative session in Louisiana is inactive until spring, the group will be working toward changing issues such as housing, job and adoption discrimination against LGBT people as well as civil unions, domestic partnerships and marriage equality.
Management junior Chase Miller, an active member of SEP, said he would like to personally improve self-esteem among the LGBT community.
“I find that a lot of people have a lot of self-esteem issues — people who are really feeling low about themselves,” Miller said. “They shouldn’t feel that way. They should feel really proud of who they are — however they describe themselves as, they should be proud of it and not be ashamed of who they are.”
While the groups may share many of the same members, Link emphasized SEP is a completely separate entity from Spectrum, the University’s other LGBT student organization.
The main focus of SEP will be activism and advocacy for LGBT equal rights, while Spectrum will now focus on the social aspects of LGBT life.
Even though the groups are independently run, Link said they will be collaborating together on events as well as other organizations such as Feminists in Action and any other groups willing to team up.
SEP and Spectrum will be hosting Rainbow Rush on Sept. 19. Rainbow Rush aids students in finding LGBT resources around town and making new friends. SEP will also be holding its first meeting Sept. 24.