LGBTQ University students clustered at tables in the Highland Coffees courtyard Wednesday as peers revealed their hopes, fears and hardships during Spectrum at LSU’s fourth annual Queer Confessions Poetry Night.
Roughly 35 University students and community members gathered for spoken word readings, original poetry and song recitations from 14 scheduled and open mic performers. Spectrum president Courtney Murr said the confessional night offers members of the LGBTQ community a space where they can make their voices heard without fear of hostility.
The natural resources and ecology management senior said attendees know they don’t have to hold back. The night’s readers shared stories of lingering emotions, depression and suicidal thoughts, grappling with self-acceptance and being unable to become their true selves.
Mass communication freshman Anna Foster, Spectrum’s communications coordinator and one of the night’s readers, said poetry makes it possible to share emotions and experiences you wouldn’t normally be comfortable sharing.
Though Foster was the night’s second reader, a bout of nerves before the event almost caused her to drop out, she said. In the end Foster said the experience was positive and affirming, and she was proud to see other people overcome their fears and face the crowd.
“The feelings people feel about relationships and their identity, especially when it’s something in the queer community, it’s hard to find a space to share that with multiple people where you feel comfortable,” Foster said. “When you’re here and you see other people proudly getting up there and saying what they feel, then it’s so much easier to say how you feel too.”
Anthropology and religious studies junior Jon Vidos, the night’s emcee and a multi-time performer, said he remembered the feeling of anxiety when he made the last minute decision to take the stage at previous readings. The release afterward is freeing, and makes you feel powerful, he said.
Vidos said it’s important for members of the LGBTQ community to have spaces where others can empathize with their feelings and experiences. While straight friends and family may care about their LGBTQ experiences, they can’t truly understand in the way others in the queer community can, he said.
Meeting with other people in the LGBTQ community is like having work friends or friends in the same major, Vidos said. You know you can talk about your views and feelings without being a bother, and they’ll be able to understand the same things that you do about specific experiences, he said.
Vidos said though the night is queer focused and targeted to expressions of queer experience, he said the stage is open to anyone who wants to attend.
“Although this is Queer Confessions, we are accepting of anyone,” Vidos said. “If a straight, white, cis male, the most privileged of them all, wants to come up and talk about his experiences, more power to you. Just because you’re not a minority doesn’t mean you don’t have issues in your life.”
