Home
Lee Benoit
Gender Liminal
Recent Entries 

Advertisement

Profile
User: [info]leebenoit
Name: Lee Benoit
Links
Latest Month
June 2008
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Page Summary
Search
Entry Tags
30th-Sep-2007 12:14 pm - National Coming Out Day update
kiss

Thanks to all of you who offered ideas and encouragement in response to my request about planning a National Coming Out Day event on my campus.

This week the planners met with the Dean of Diversity Affairs to present our ideas and, hopefully, get some institutional support (read: money).  It went really well, with the following outcomes:

1.  National Coming Out Day will feature exhibits and information tables in three prominent campus locations throughout the day (it's a small campus, so three spots over 11 hours is great!).  Local chapters of GLSEN, PFLAG, GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and Family Pride are sending information and schwag like balloons and buttons.  We will also encourage everyone who visits the tables to wear a nametag (thanks to

[info]briel_morriganfor that suggestion!).  The Diversity Dean is distributing the tags ahead of time to faculty and staff with a memo about the importance of the day, the issues, and visibility as a legitimizing force for GLBTQ youth.  I'll let y'all know how it goes!

2.  I really took to heart the advice many of you gave to:
a.  Give kids a safe space to just be queer
b.  Offer information in non-threatening, entertaining ways, like movie nights (thanks for the wealth of suggestions!!)
c.  Give kids information about community organizations and safe/sympathetic faces and places on campus 
d.  Remind folks how bad things still are, celebrate triumphs and learn from defeats

To these ends, I'll be working with another faculty member to resurrect The Pride Alliance, the dormant GLBTQ student group.  I'd really wanted students to take the reins from the beginning, but realistically nothing will happen until some of us with authority and (let's face it) less to lose by being out make the safe space, get things going.  As our GLBT student population grows in confidence and visibility, we can hand over responsibility to them and be advisors again.

If anyone has other ideas or advice about activities and resources, please don't hesitate to let me know.  I was never much of a joiner in college and so have very little experience with groups like this!

All best wishes,
Lee

 

20th-Sep-2007 10:05 am - National Coming Out Day or, "Help Me, O My Friends List, You're My Only Hope"
basket

National Coming Out Day is October 11 here in the States, and this year marks the 20th anniversary of the first Gay and Lesbian march on Washington.

 

Nice info to have, but I have an ulterior motive for sharing.  I need y'all's advice.

 

I teach at an urban community college where GLBT issues are, to put it generously, just emerging as an issue.  A small group of colleagues and I are trying to get the newly formed Diversity Programming Committee to fund some on-campus events to mark National Coming Out Day.  We have a meeting next week to present our proposals.

 

So here's my question: If you were a student at a big, diverse, working-class college, struggling with your identity and the perils of coming out in an essentially homophobic environment, what would be useful, interesting, or affirming for you?  What would be fun?  What would make a difference?  (Grudgingly: An ancillary question, I suppose, is what kind of programming would best raise awareness and tolerance among the homophobic masses?)

 

The things I think of as fun or that have helped me, like a GLBT Book Club, are hopelessly nerdy!

Advertisement

This page was loaded Jul 7th 2008, 4:46 am GMT.