Diversity Conference

Today I was privileged enough to attend the first half of the diversity conference. Being a member of Madison Equality, I was asked to be on a panel of LGBT members to share my story. The panel was a “safezone” panel which differs from a classroom panel in that it caters to faculty and staff. These faculty and staff members get briefed on topics such as transgender 101, inclusive language, how to react to someone who comes out to you, and how to deal with many other queer issues. Once you, the faculty or staff member, has attended a Safezone panel, you become certified. You sign a contract and get a sticker to put on your door, in your classroom, on your mailbox, etc. This image serves as a visual aid to all LGBT people so that they know that this person is a safe person to talk to, and this classroom/office/house/whatever it may be, is a safe space.  The sticker looks like this:

If you have seen this image before, that’s good. That means they’re somewhat common. Depending on which department you spend most of your time in, you may never have seen one. I know that in my department, Justice Studies, most professors actually are Safezone certified. However, if you find yourself frequenting Roop, you may have never seen this sticker. That is not to say that I think Math people are homophobic, I don’t. Maybe some are, but I would never make that assumption. I certainly think a lot of the Math professors are busy, though. That could potentially be the top reason. It could be a million different reasons. Perhaps our [i.e. LGBT community] is lacking in the visibility aspect. Perhaps they don’t know the Safezone panels exist. It could be anything.

I digress. The Diversity Conference panel turnout was larger than most safezone panels, but not nearly as large as I had expected considering this week is the Diversity Conference. To quickly explain, the Diversity Conference is a day long event in which faculty and staff members, as well as graduate students and some undergraduates, participate in workshops to better educate themselves on diversity. The workshops are facilitated by people who are very well-versed on each topic. The mission of the Diversity Conference is

To assist and lead in creating an inclusive environment for Faculty, Staff and Students.

I only stayed until lunch (which was DELICIOUS!) but the event seemed to be going pretty well. However, it was lacking in some areas. Perhaps to be expected, perhaps not.

For lunch, individuals signed up to sit at a table based on the topic of discussion at each table. The topics stretched from ethnic diversity issues such as black issues in the community to sexuality issues such as LGBT issues in the community. There were tables for the topic of Veterans, Obama and Healthcare, and many, many other diverse groups had a lunch table discussion, as well.

Each table had a pretty great turnout. Grrrir (who also attended the panel discussion)  and I didn’t have time to sign up for a table so we tried to find a table that had two seats left. Almost every table was full, except one. We sat at that table. What topic do you think that table covered? Nope, not women’s issues. That table was actually pretty well attended.

The table that had seats left was LGBT issues. Grrrir and I sat down, along with one other gay identified male and one girl that we both knew from having been in Madison Equality in her undergrad. The facilitator of the discussion was also a gay male, and there were two other people at the table. One was Joanne Carr, Vice President of the Division of University Advancement, and the other mans name escapes me. However, he had a very important title, as well.

It was nice to see Dr. Carr and this other man trying to educate themselves on LGBT issues. To open the discussion, Dr. Carr asked a simple, yet its answer lies in hundreds of years of history and could not be pinpointed to just one thing. She said, “I signed up for this table because no one else had. Why do you think no one wanted to sit at this table?”. Then something dawned on me. I care about these issues because I am LGBT, as well as most of the other members at this lunch table. Other people who enjoy heterosexual privilege on a daily basis do not even think about these issues. Much of it, in  my opinion, has to do with the fact that the visibility is lacking.
Consider the generation gap. Our generation, as college students, seem to be more accepting of the LGBT community. The generation that the majority of the faculty and staff fall in dealt with different issues. Those issues most often catered to people of color. When you look at the JMU community, you can see people of color. They’re there, you cannot ignore skin color. You can’t miss it. Now look at the JMU  community and try to find the gay community. Stereotyping how gay identified people dress or cut their hair may not help you. You might just sound like an asshole when you assume a girl with short hair is a lesbian come to find out she’s been in a relationship with a man for five years. Anyways, my point is that the visibility aspect isn’t “natural”. To let people know you are queer identified, you have to tell them. There has to be some sort of dialogue for confirmation. To let people know you are black, you can walk past them. Perhaps faculty and staff thinks that LGBT rights isn’t the issue of most concern because the population doesn’t seem as prevalent. I don’t think putting oppression into a hierarchy of importance is going to help anyone, but people need to realize just how important these issues actually are. Visibility needs to take a new form.
We also brought up the idea of the term “diversity”. Grrrir shared that when she thinks of diversity, she immediately thinks of the non-discrimination policy and what that entails. Sexual orientation is in the non-discrimination policy. Gender-identity is not. Do transgenders not matter in the fight for equal rights? They didn’t even have a fucking table at this conference. I, for one, think that’s bullshit. Transgender issues need to be discussed on a much larger scale and hit a lot more communities. A lot of people don’t know much about the topic. As a matter of fact, a gay male that was in my Safezone panel (who knows a lot about LGB issues) said he was glad we talked about being trasngender because he actually wasn’t aware of most of the issues we covered. He was glad he had the opportunity to learn a lot. I also must point out that WordPress is putting a red, squiggly line under the word “Transgender” as I type it. No, this is not a typo, WordPress. Tansgender is a word. This is the shit I’m talking about. The transgender movement needs to move forward because they have taken a really shitty backseat to other issues.

Back to the issue of the diversity. We talked about how when most people think of diversity, they think of ethnic diversity. Probably because those movements are further along than the Gay Rights Movement. Maybe people do think of the LGBT community but just don’t care. It’s really hard to generalize. I can only speak for myself, but, alas, it was disheartening, if not disempowering, that the LGBT table was so small.

These leaves me with two questions:

What do you think of when you think of diversity?
and
How can certain groups become more visible/What do they have to do to be noticed?