On Campus Event

On Campus Event

So, as a little straight girl who used to be—and ashamedly so—homophobic, I’ve made the decision to do my best for my friends who are homosexual. For a while I thought simply by being friends with them and being able to speak openly about such things that I was being accepting and helpful enough as it was which is why it bothered me when I was invited by a lesbian friend of mine to come and support her at the LGBT Salon and found myself a good deal less than excited and a good bit more nervous than I had any right to be. But seeing as I could never justify it to myself not to go after initially telling her yes without even thinking about it, I showed up. I showed up alone, quietly, head tucked down, and eyes scanning for familiar faces. Fortunately, surprisingly, there were plenty of them. Everyone was situated around in a big circle taking up nearly the entire ballroom in a mix of students, faculty, and staff—a colorful showing in every sense of the word.
I sat there looking awkward between one of those acquaintance-friends that you reserve for just such an occasion and one of the more flamboyant supporters that I’d never met, embarrassing worries flushing through my head: do they now assume that I’m gay? Do I look embarrassed? Should I say something even though I’m straight? Of course, these were all stupid and eventually I did muster up the normalcy to put in my two cents. The big topic of the day was how to make SU not only more gay-friendly but also prouder of their gay population seeing as slurs and insults about homosexuality are certainly more present and, sadly, more widely accepted than just about any other prejudice on campus – even to the point of tour guides feeling the need to reassure visiting parents that we have Christian groups to counteract any LGBT activities that might be offered.
If you’re curious to know just what it is I piped up with, they had already mentioned maybe instituting some new diversity programs or activities with the incoming freshmen during orientation week – an idea which I happily supported – seeing as it had been just the day before when I’d attended the Trinity vs. SU soccer game and some very unsavory, very prejudiced, and hateful comments had been yelled at Trinity’s team and while I can’t say that I disapprove of all heckling, I can say that I find those sorts of hateful comments to be no worse or better than had they been racist slurs. I’m not saying we can or should ever try to force everyone at SU into a single line of thinking or that it is even possible for everyone to so quickly become comfortable with something they never have been comfortable with before, but I do think it is vital to the life of our liberal arts community that people be tolerant and respectful at the very, very least.
And really, what is it that people are so afraid of in differences? That these differences might affect or influence them in some way? Seems to me that those are the people who need the readjustment, who create the real need for parents to be reassured – “don’t worry, despite some minor prejudices on campus, we are in general very progressive and very accepting and are working to make sure that everyone – no matter what race, sexual preference, gender, etc – always feels safe and free here at Southwestern”.


still working on the off campus post,
so till then,
ciao,
katie m