GSA And Outsource 1
The Gay-Straight Alliance Kaitlyn Melvin University of Kentucky
CIS 110 Section 007 Allyson DeVito November 28, 2011
GSA And Outsource 2 Abstract The Gay-Straight Alliance at the University of Kentucky is a student organization dedicated to providing an open and supporting environment for the university’s LGBT community. After observing this organization and talking with its members, I have a better understanding of its importance to the students of UK. I also have a new respect for people who make GSA and the Outsource LGBT Resource Center possible.
GSA And Outsource 3 The University of Kentucky boasts many clubs and organizations available to its student body. The one of the most unique on campus is the Gay Straight Alliance. It serves the LGBT community of our University or as they identify, the broader LGBTQQA community. I chose to explore this organization by attending one of their weekly meetings, making several visits to the Outsource Center, and interviewing a freshman member of GSA. From my experience, GSA is an incredibly open and welcoming club that has influenced my opinions about its role on this campus as well as my perspective of the LGBT community in general. The Gay Straight Alliances’ link on the University’s Get Involved Website clearly states that its goal is to, “promote awareness and fairness concerning LGBTQQA issues at UK and work for a unified gay and straight community in the Lexington area” (University of Kentucky Get Involved: Gay Straight Alliance). In my opinion this is a very important club on campus in terms of raising awareness and fighting discrimination. According to Miceli (2005), “Student-led GSAs, because they are adolescents, have perhaps a greater potential than other groups to fracture the façade of legitimacy that upholds oppression of gay and lesbian people, because it is difficult to rationalize mistreating children than it is adults” (p. 224). Until beginning this community project I wasn’t aware of the extended acronym for LGBT. GLBTQQA stands for gay, lesbian, transgender, queer, questioning and allied. Just the explanation of this acronym brought to light a whole new perspective on the goals and outlook of the GSA organization. From my experience this is an incredibly open minded and inclusive club. People of all ages, genders and sexual orientations are warmly welcomed. I attended my first meeting with my friend Alex who as a first semester freshman is already great friends with many of the GSA members. Before the meeting started we sat and
Allyson DeVito User 12/13/11 9:50 AM Comment [1]: Tell us what these letters stand for on first reference in your essay)
GSA And Outsource 4 talked with some of his friends in the Outsource center. While separate from GSA, Outsource is also important to the University’s LGBT community. According to Scout, a freshman member of GSA, one has to, “be able to give advice to kids who need emotional support” (Noffke, 2011, personal interview) as an Outsource volunteer. The resource center also offers free condoms, books and media on sex education and brings about greater awareness of LGBT issues. Outsource is fairly new, only about 5 years old since the University granted them space in the student center. GSA, however, has been on campus for many years in different forms. The Outsource volunteers we talked with described GSA’s history on UK’s campus as a sporadic ebb and flow of growth. Recently, membership has taken on a more stable pattern. Each year, new members fill the gap left by those who have graduated. I felt immediately welcomed within minutes of talking and laughing with the kids in Outsource. I was also quickly made aware of assumptions I unknowingly held and my own naivety. While some of the people we talked with in Outsource might be easily labeled as homosexual based on societal standards of the way they talked or dressed, I wasn’t able to immediately pin labels on everyone I met. As a group, we would all just appear to be a group of friends talking and hanging out. Talking with a girl, who turned out to live on the same floor of my residence hall, I also learned about a sexual orientation I’d never heard of before. She identifies as pansexual. When I asked what that meant everyone laughed and told her to give me the speech, as though she had heard this question a lot. Pansexuality, as she explained it, means that she doesn’t care whether a partner is gay, straight, lesbian or even transgender, that she is able to find attraction in any sex or orientation.
GSA And Outsource 5 The University of Kentucky’s GSA has weekly meetings every Thursday night at 7 in the Student Center. Everyone is welcome to attend whether they want to become heavily involved or are just curious and want to stop in. Each meeting has a central topic to discuss either picked by one of the co-presidents or suggested by another member. GSA is centered on weekly discussion to broaden awareness, break open taboos and help fight discrimination by fighting ignorance. The ally is very important to any GSA. Allies are heterosexual supporters of LGBT friends and family. Miceli (2005) describes the importance of dedicated alliances in, “increasing the numbers of heterosexual people who have come to realize that the oppression of LGBT individuals is unjust” (p. 225). In my interview with Scout, she gave an example of how one of the meetings discussed the power of language and why certain words have the effect that they do. She went on to say that, “There was talk about whether we should reclaim the word queer and an intense discussion about words like faggot and dyke and why they’re offensive” (Noffke, 2011, personal interview). Although I had convinced myself that I was starting this community project with an open mind, I realized throughout the process that there were several assumptions I had already formed. These assumptions came from both personal experience and certain societal stereotypes that I had adopted. My so called open mind was actually just telling myself I would be open to how I assumed the experience would go. For example, I had assumed that the GSA meeting would consist of mainly homosexual members and certain stereotypes were
GSA And Outsource 6 formed about the way people might dress, talk and act during the meeting. I realized that I was surprised by the large number of people who attended the meeting and the fact that I couldn’t immediately label orientations on everyone as I looked around the room. I had assumed that the meeting would be a smaller circle of regular attendees mainly composed of gay and lesbian students. There were many people who expressed that they were gay or lesbian. However there were also many people who identified as bisexual, several straight people like me, and several people who had just stopped in the meeting out of curiosity. The GLSEN, or Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network provides a lot of interesting background information about GSAs on their website. One of the most surprising facts I found on this website was that the first GSA was founded by a straight student. The meeting began with everyone going around the circle introducing them self and saying what was their favorite part of the week. This is a GSA tradition at UK and I thought it was a great way to break the ice and give everyone a chance to talk in front of the group of 50 or so people right away. The topic for this meeting was whether or not there should be a boycott on the Chik-Fil-A in the student center. There’s been recent controversy about the fast food chain supporting anti-LGBT organizations. It became a very lively discussion and many different attendees participated. I opted to simply observe in this case although it was very tempting to raise my hand and voice my opinion as well. Many different opinions were presented and I was impressed with the way the discussion was conducted. The majority seemed to be in favor of not boycotting Chik-Fil-A for a variety of reasons. The argument was that although the larger corporation wasn’t behaving fairly toward the LGBT community, boycotting a single franchise would hurt people on a smaller scale more than it would affect the corporate level. Trying to convince the school administration to remove Chik-Fil-A from campus would most likely cause
GSA And Outsource 7 other students to resent GSA for removing their favorite fast food chain. When they introduced the topic I believed that the majority would be enthusiastic in support of a public boycott on the fast food chain. I was also surprised by the number of people who were able to speak. Several of the veteran attendees and GSA leaders guided the discussion but by no means monopolized it. By the end I was very impressed with the level of discussion and arguments that were made. After these first two encounters with Outsource and the GSA meeting I couldn’t believe how many assumptions I had made without realizing it and how quickly my perspective on UK’s LGBT community had changed. On a separate occasion I revisited the Outsource center to follow up and talk further. In this encounter I was more interested in learning how Outsource has been received by the student body and what kind of goals they have concerning its future. Their response was very laid back and optimistic. Since the University granted Outsource its location in the student center, they feel like they’re made a positive difference in giving students a safe place to ask questions and look for support. They are also able to direct people where they can go for further assistance or guidance. I was also wondering whether there was much interaction between UK’s GSA and GSAs at other nearby universities. All of the Outsource volunteers said that besides friends they know from other schools such as the University of Louisville, they don’t have any official network set up but it’s something they’ve kept in mind.
GSA And Outsource 8 Besides just weekly discussions the University of Kentucky’s Gay-Straight Alliance has several key days and events. Some of these include Coming out Day, National Transgender Day of Remembrance, their Christmas party and Spring Gayla. Scout, in her interview, said that she is most excited for the Christmas party because, “it’s just fun hanging out with everybody” (Noffke, 2011, personal interview) She and some of the Outsource members also expressed excitement for the upcoming “Gayla” where there is live music, dancing, food and as Scout put it, “a big drag show” (Noffke, 2011, personal interview). Before starting this project I knew a few people who were involved with GSA. I have had gay and lesbian friends and thought I knew what to expect going into this. However, the University of Kentucky’s Gay-Straight Alliance has surprised me in so many ways. I feel as though I have learned a lot through this handful of experiences. I’m also very humbled by the motivation, intelligence and warmth with which they accepted me. It was hard to feel like an observer of this community; I felt so included. This experience has also taught me how essential GSA is to our university. The people of GSA often refer to themselves as a family, and for someone who hasn’t always had a loving and supportive environment GSA becomes their family. I’ve become attached to this community and definitely plan on continuing to go to meetings and talk more with the people who have been so kind to me over the past two weeks. Through my fieldwork and research I’ve also become interested in learning more about gay and lesbian studies and taking this knowledge home to share with family and friends where I know it’s needed.
GSA And Outsource 9 References GLSEN: Background and Information about Gay-Straight Alliances. Retrieved from http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/2336.html Miceli, M. (2005). Standing Out, Standing Together: The Social and Political Impact of GayStraight Alliances. New York, NY: Routledge. Noffke, S. (18 November 2011). Personal interview. Being a Freshman Member of the GayStraight Alliance. University of Kentucky Gay-Straight Alliance Facebook Page. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67291176549 University of Kentucky Get Involved: Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). Retrieved from http://getinvolved.uky.edu/register/Search/Details.aspx?Id=1d340a26-2706-4832-9d114ab81293ebc7