On-Campus Event
In October I attended my second ever Southwestern Allies meeting. I went once before my freshman year, the first meeting of the semester, and was a little disheartened by the lack of diversity--only two people did not identify as "straight." Not that there's really anything wrong with straight people showing their support...that's exactly what I was doing. However, without the different perspectives I felt like basically everyone was nodding their heads in agreement to every question that was posed and every issue that was addressed. "Yep, we're all down with gay people." It just didn't seem all that...progressive or important to me. So I didn't go to any more meetings that year. Or the years following until this October. And it was interesting. For one, the group was much, much larger. The first meeting I went to couldn't have had more than eight people. This one, however, filled the whole of Korouva, and the members seemed to be much more interested in discussing risqué, controversial topics. Even more than what was discussed, I was particularly struck by the openness of the individuals in the room. When the discussion became a debate about what constitutes pornography, many students were willing to talk about very personal issues and ideas. The fact that everyone was so comfortable and accepting was really impressive to me. I suppose that's the whole point of the meetings for Allies, but even still I was pleasantly surprised by what an excellent job these students did of creating a safe space to discuss these sorts of issues where absolutely no judgment is being passed. It was pretty inspiring!Another topic of discussion was the It Gets Better campaign, a response to GLBT teen depression and suicide. For this project celebrities and "real people" alike submit videos explaining how they managed to get through the hardships of growing up GLBT, and their current successes in life. I had heard some about this campaign beforehand and didn't see any problems with it. It seemed to me to be a motivational device that couldn't do any hard. Interestingly enough, several students thought that a lot of people (especially celebrities) were using it as a medium of popularity--just a way to talk about themselves and how great their lives are. This definitely hadn't occurred to me, but I thought it was a least an interesting point. Of course, I ultimately think the project is doing much, much more good than bad.
Even though I didn't personally speak up during this meeting, I felt it was nice to hear some different perspectives about these sorts of issues. Allies seems to be doing a great job of creating a suitable environment that appeals to all kinds of people, and I definitely appreciated that.
posted by Rachel @ 9:11 PM
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