This past year I have started volunteering for SOGIE (Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression) here at JMU and with this experience I have realized there is so much more behind the scenes that goes into the work they do. To give a more inside view to the work SOGIE does, I interviewed my friend, Gavin Wilkerson (he/him), who is the Outreach Graduate Assistant. In his role, the main parts of it are: creating affinity groups based on student interests, managing the volunteer program and hosting weekly meetings, keep track of social media posting and marketing campaigns, develop half of the programming the department does like puppy pride, coming out monologues, lavender graduation, while also supervising one undergraduate Student Outreach Coordinator.
Below are the points discussed during the interview!
- What challenges have you come across in your role?
Gavin: One challenge that is recently being faced is the idea of student interaction with individuals giving hateful messages. The student population of JMU does not want this individual on campus and neither does SOGIE. However, both “parties” go about it a different way. SOGIE’s best practice is to simply avoid and/or ignore the individual(s) who commit such messages. Why give them the attention they want? Some of our student population disagrees and continues to draw more attention than the individual deserves. Some of that is communicational needs that need to be addressed, nevertheless, still challenging.
- What new initiatives is SOGIE taking this year?
Gavin: SOGIE is working towards making a more inclusive and diverse space. We are doing a new program in November where we rent out the Aquatic Center in UREC for Pride Pool Party! There are several other programmatic pieces that we are doing. Another thing is working towards getting historical documentation at/from/about JMU and its queer history; whether that be conduct, student populace, or student resources. Also, in partnership with CMSS (Center for Multicultural Student Services) we sponsor D.E.E.P. (Diversity Education Empowerment Program) Impact to develop programs that increase awareness and knowledge of different backgrounds and work to uplift diversity amongst us. This year, we’ve worked with D.E.E.P. Impact to have Rhinestone Productions teach students about the history of drag!
- Why did you choose to work with SOGIE?
Gavin: My main reason for working for SOGIE is to continuously advocate for student needs in any way that I am physically able to and ensure that queer students are developing as undergrad students. Especially as a queer individual, I understand what this is like at JMU and I think being able to aid others as they navigate through that is helpful.
Personally, my experience volunteering with SOGIE so far and in interactions with Gavin have been nothing short of amazing. I feel like not only for me, but for other queer students on campus, SOGIE and their employees work so hard to create a safe space for everyone. With recent events on campus, I believe it is crucial for everyone to keep in mind that hate speech is violence. I’ve had friends who do not want to go to class because of this individual on campus, fall behind in their classes, and not take care of themselves because of the stress they’re enduring. However, it is important to know that queer joy is queer resistance. Regardless of this individual being present, I urge everyone to show up as loud and proud as they would without the presence of such hate speech here at JMU. During volunteer meetings and programs that SOGIE hosts, I feel like staff always make a point to check in on our well-being which is not as common in other programs. The Lavender Lounge has become my second home to find more community and I overall couldn’t be more thankful for the SOGIE volunteer program.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 