Student Activities Board Hosts LGBTQ Awareness Seminar
The Student Activities Board hosted an awareness event for the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning) community and for those who are in the dark about what it means to be a LGBTQ Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Atchafalaya room of the Student Union. When asked why this program chose to discuss this topic, Leticia Garcilazo, the Ideas and Issues chairperson for the Student Activities Board said, “A lot of people from the LGBTQ community actually came up to us and asked if we could host a program based on [LGBTQ], and so this is what we came up with.” A table for five panelists facing the audience was supposed to represent a different letter from LGBTQ. Garcilazo said they had a panelist for every letter except Q, or Questioning.
The program began with Bruce Parker, Space Safe Campaign Coordinator, asking the twenty to thirty people who showed up to move into the front rows, assuring the hesitant spectators that “gay isn’t contagious.” Space Safe is a program at LSU which helps to train faculty about gay and lesbian issues and also helps LSU’s LGBTQ students with any problems they might have. He then discussed a handout that had been available at the back of the room containing different terms, including terms not to use when referring to or discussing someone of the LGBTQ community. One, for example, was “homosexual”. Parker explained that this was actually a medical term used to “diagnose” gay people not that long ago, because they were considered to have a disorder and that with the Gay Rights Movement, the LGBTQ community has hoped to stop using medical terminology. Parker also shunned the word “lifestyle” because “being gay isn’t a lifestyle it’s who you are.” Some lifestyles he used as examples were being a vegan, or a jogger.
After he helped everyone to understand what meant what, he stepped down and let the panelists introduce themselves. The first was Angela, who represented the bisexual on the panel. Angela, 30, is a schoolteacher and is married with children. Her husband is well aware that she is bisexual and is very open to it. She explained that she was married at a young age and followed “social expectations” because that’s what “normal” people do. However, she knew she was also attracted to women since she was in high school.
Kevin, 48, was the “gay male” on the panel. He claimed to have “never questioned” his sexuality. He has always been attracted to men but was so scared of not being accepted by his family and friends, he waited to have his first gay experience until he was 28. He told a story about his straight friends who told him, “You know, if you’re going to be gay, you’ve got to actually do something gay.” He jokingly went on to say, “I passed with flying colors.”
Michael, 20, was the transgender of the group. He was four and a half months into transitioning from a female to a male by taking “T shots”, or testosterone. He claimed he had to come out to his family and friends twice: “Once as a lesbian and once as a transgender.” He said he had very supportive parents and hasn’t “lost one friend.” Michael has already scheduled “top surgery” but “bottom surgery” was undecided.
Nadia, 21, the lesbian representative, was the final panelist. She had her first lesbian experience when she was 15 but still dated men and women, predominantly women, until 18 when she claimed to pretty much only date women. However, she considers herself “queer” because she “will not limit [her] romantic involvements to females.”
After each panelist discussed their “coming out” stories, the Q&A session began. Audience members could write a question on a sheet of paper and slip it into the anonymous box, or could bravely walk up to a microphone set up in the aisle to ask the panelists questions face to face. One of the questions was “Were you born gay? Or was it a choice?” Kevin assured the room, once again, that he was “born gay.” Angela responded, “I don’t feel I was born this way, but I do feel this is me.” Michael said, “What you feel inside is not a choice.” And finally Nadia incredibly spoke, “I think I was born with an open mind and an ability to love.”
One question which set an uncomfortable chill in the air was “Some people say homosexuals shouldn’t be able to adopt children. What do you think?” Nadia sassily retorted, “I think some heterosexuals shouldn’t be able to adopt.” This led to cheering and clapping from almost everyone in the room. The last question of the session came from a man who said, “Love is love” and then asked, “How can I help?” Basically he wanted to know how he could stop hate crimes towards people of the LGBTQ community and the harassment. Each panelist almost unanimously replied that he could “stand up” when someone says a gay joke, or calls someone a “fag or dyke”. They also recommended voting for more open-minded politicians who are “very limited” in the south, Kevin added.
Overall, the program was a success and almost everyone who attended seemed to have a better knowledge of what the LGBTQ community represents. Hopefully more LSU students will be learn to be more accepting of their fellow peers and not be hesitant in personally discovering that LGBTQ people are just that, people.