This year’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Diversity Week kicks off today with a panel on LGBT political issues in an effort to help raise LGBT awareness on campus.
Together, the LGBT Resource Center and the Associated Students Inc. secretary of LGBT Affairs, Matthew Bates, have planned panels, events and forums throughout the week.
“Diversity [Week] is like a celebration,” Bates said.
This year’s diversity week is especially significant in light of recent events the LGBT community has faced.
“Diversity Week helps provide a welcoming environment,” said Alysa Campos, a mechanical engineering major. “The LGBT community is still in transition.”
The events will start off with “Prop 8 and Single Issue Politics Panel Presentation: Intersections of Race, Religion and Sexual Orientation,” on Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the University Student Union, Alamitos Bay Room 253. Professors featured on the panel will speak about sexual orientation, race and religion.
The week isn’t only about the LGBT community, but also the various minorities on campus.
The Whiteness and Privilege Symposium will focus on how inequality is maintained through social systems on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the USU Ballrooms. David Roediger, a history professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will lead the panel, which will be followed by an open discussion.
The second half will consist of three small groups in which participants can talk about personal experiences with racism and privilege.
The 13th annual Day of Silence and a public forum on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex and Ally/Asexual will be held Wednesday.
“The Day of Silence recognizes what happened in the past; we were always shut up and shut down,” said Jules Fugett, a junior theater major. The event will begin at the Speaker’s Platform in front of the bookstore at 10 a.m. and end at 2 p.m.
The Day of Silence symbolizes how members of the LGBT community have been silenced or unheard due to suppression by other individuals or society.
According to the Day of Silence website, “it brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools.”
Matthew Bates is scheduled to host the LGBTQIA campus public forum, where he will discuss his position in ASI and what resources are available to the LGBT community. It begins at 4 p.m. in the USU Beach Auditorium and ends at 6 p.m. The forum also allows for student participation and comments regarding their experiences being LGBTQIA on campus.
The week wraps up on Thursday with a performance called “Butchlalis de Panochtitlan,” an art play about “butch lesbian Chicanas experiences.” The three girls who perform in the play hope to bring humor and spunk to serious issues such as identity and the discrimination of lesbians. The performance is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Beach Auditorium.
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