(no subject)
This was an article done on my a bit ago
Gay PRIDE on Campus
by Christine Parrish
Village Soup Citizen Staff Reporter
UNITY (May 4): Unity College students recently participated in the National Day of Silence to focus attention on the challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) college students.
More than 60 people attended the April 13 event organized by PRIDE, a campus social and education group that promotes gender awareness and schedules discussions, films and speakers. PRIDE stands for People Really Interested in Diverse Environments. Unity PRIDE has about 20 members.
Participants picked up “Day of Silence” buttons at the cafeteria and other campus locations and kept silent (except for lecturers, who spoke only when necessary) until 6 p.m., when PRIDE hosted a Breaking the Silence Bash, with a speaker session, food and movies. During the event, some participants called on the college to include a campus LGBTQ resource center.
“This campus needs to be more inclusive, needs to foster an accepting atmosphere that caters to all of its current and prospective students' needs," said Unity PRIDE student organizer Chanel Romney. "One major way to do that is to allow us a safe space, a resource center. From there, we can go on to do even better things for this campus.”
Romney was well integrated into the gay community in her hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y., where conversations about gender identity and gender equity were a daily occurrence. She missed those conversations and that sense of community when she came to Unity College as a first-year student. So she decided to build a similar community on campus.
“It actually physically hurt not to have something to connect to,” said Romney about her reason for starting PRIDE.
Romney said she was “out” by the time she was a first-year student. At a Catholic high school in Brooklyn, it was more of an emotional stance where she had “innocent crushes” on teachers and friends. She also found that people who were questioning their sexual identities would often come to talk with her. At Unity College, she felt she needed those same resources and discussions she had at home, which was why she was motivated to start PRIDE.
“I’ve found that gender stereotypes don’t fit the way they seem to…girls are this, boys are this, gays are this…it doesn’t seem to fit anyone a lot of the time,” said Romney, who finds that sexual identity is complex and that many people are interested in talking about how that complexity plays out in social expectations. “I’m not comfortable with type-casting,” she said.
Upcoming PRIDE events include a trip to a Colby College drag show Saturday, April 30; Maine Speak OUT training from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 1; and a movie night that has not yet been scheduled.
Plans are also underway for fall 2005 activities, including an event for National Coming Out Day, multiple workshops, getting more LGBTQ-themed media in the library and initiating a LGBTQ speaker series on campus.
PRIDE also plans a petition/campaign for an Introduction to LGBTQ studies class to be taught on campus the spring or fall of 2006.
For more information, contact cromney@unity.edu.
Gay PRIDE on Campus
by Christine Parrish
Village Soup Citizen Staff Reporter
UNITY (May 4): Unity College students recently participated in the National Day of Silence to focus attention on the challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) college students.
More than 60 people attended the April 13 event organized by PRIDE, a campus social and education group that promotes gender awareness and schedules discussions, films and speakers. PRIDE stands for People Really Interested in Diverse Environments. Unity PRIDE has about 20 members.
Participants picked up “Day of Silence” buttons at the cafeteria and other campus locations and kept silent (except for lecturers, who spoke only when necessary) until 6 p.m., when PRIDE hosted a Breaking the Silence Bash, with a speaker session, food and movies. During the event, some participants called on the college to include a campus LGBTQ resource center.
“This campus needs to be more inclusive, needs to foster an accepting atmosphere that caters to all of its current and prospective students' needs," said Unity PRIDE student organizer Chanel Romney. "One major way to do that is to allow us a safe space, a resource center. From there, we can go on to do even better things for this campus.”
Romney was well integrated into the gay community in her hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y., where conversations about gender identity and gender equity were a daily occurrence. She missed those conversations and that sense of community when she came to Unity College as a first-year student. So she decided to build a similar community on campus.
“It actually physically hurt not to have something to connect to,” said Romney about her reason for starting PRIDE.
Romney said she was “out” by the time she was a first-year student. At a Catholic high school in Brooklyn, it was more of an emotional stance where she had “innocent crushes” on teachers and friends. She also found that people who were questioning their sexual identities would often come to talk with her. At Unity College, she felt she needed those same resources and discussions she had at home, which was why she was motivated to start PRIDE.
“I’ve found that gender stereotypes don’t fit the way they seem to…girls are this, boys are this, gays are this…it doesn’t seem to fit anyone a lot of the time,” said Romney, who finds that sexual identity is complex and that many people are interested in talking about how that complexity plays out in social expectations. “I’m not comfortable with type-casting,” she said.
Upcoming PRIDE events include a trip to a Colby College drag show Saturday, April 30; Maine Speak OUT training from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 1; and a movie night that has not yet been scheduled.
Plans are also underway for fall 2005 activities, including an event for National Coming Out Day, multiple workshops, getting more LGBTQ-themed media in the library and initiating a LGBTQ speaker series on campus.
PRIDE also plans a petition/campaign for an Introduction to LGBTQ studies class to be taught on campus the spring or fall of 2006.
For more information, contact cromney@unity.edu.