Career Placement Strategies for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students
This workshop will address some concerns that many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people encounter during their career development process, especially during job search and placement. The workshop will discuss assessing the workplace environment and coming out issues in applying for employment. Many resources will be provided to help GLB people with the job search process.
The workshop will be facilitated by Lisa Hollingsworth, a doctoral student at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology currently interning at Harper College where she co-teaches a career development class for GLB students and their allies and is a member of a committee working to create a safe space for GLB people on campus; and Andy Howe, a counselor and instructor at Harper College and active GLB ally on campus who administers many GLB awareness workshops, co-teaches a career development class for GLB students and their allies, and develops and implements many programs to create a safe space for all GLB people on campus.
The Causes of Homophobia
Using both primary and secondary sources, this workshop explores the social backgrounds of homophobia, followed by four psychological causes: power and status, common sense, stereotypy and internalization. Religious causes are investigated separately. The paper concludes with a discussion of lesbian perspectives and the impact of AIDS.
Michael E. Jackson is originally from London, England. He came out in 1969 while working in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay). He is now employed on the staff of Columbia College Chicago as a public relations associate. He is completely out at the college, even to the trustee level, where he served as trustee representative of the alumni association for three years.
Coalition Building -- Forming a United Front
Several queer groups are found on the Ohio University campus: Open Doors (a support group), LGBTC (a political group), Swarm of Dykes (a lesbian militant group), and Delta Lambda Phi (a gay fraternity). These groups have not always worked together. Experience gained in coalition building will be shared in this workshop. A short lecture will be followed by discussion of specific scenarios and a brainstorming session.
Dale Edwards and Eleni Zulia are senators of the Ohio University Student Senate. Dale serves as the Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender Commissioner. Eleni serves as the Women's Affairs Commissioner. They are involved in a multitude of issues and events at the university and in the Athens, Ohio community.
Hidden Obsessions: Lesbian Representations in Traditional Film Pornography
This presentation is an examination of Andrew Blake's contemporary porn masterpiece, Hidden Obsessions. It details the ways in which "lesbians" in pornography become nothing more than cultural devices, tools used to maintain a phallocentric and heteropatriarchal sexual institution, confirming the narcissistic and deeply Freudian notion that female sexuality exists only within a male sexual paradigm.
Presenter: Susan M. E. Glen holds a Master's Degree in English from the University of St. Thomas (Twin Cities), and is preparing to start work on a Ph.D. in the fall. In the meantime she lives in Milwaukee, where she writes the Web page for a Conservative synagogue. Sporting multiple piercings and tattoos, she is looking forward to becoming an official Melissa Ferrick groupie-freak. Save her a seat.
HIV/AIDS, and Other STDs, Instruction
This program will provide a question-and-answer presentation on the female condom. The three key questions which will be answered are: Will it protect me? How do I insert the female condom? What does it feel like during sex? The objective is to facilitate education for anyone but particularly women who are concerned about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as pregnancy.
Joel Sandoval works for The Hands of Life Against AIDS program (The H.O.L.A.A.) in Pilsen Community. Presently, he is an educational outreach specialist, which means he provides information on HIV/AIDS and other STD's to any interested party.
How Teachers Understand Gay and Lesbian Content in the Elementary Social Studies Curriculum
The presenter will report on qualitative research conducted with teachers to explore their understanding of including content about gays and lesbians and homophobia in their social studies curriculum. This presentation will interest students and faculty members who care about K-6 education, early childhood education, teacher education and social studies curriculum methods.
Kevin Colleary is pursuing his doctorate in education at Harvard University. A teacher and curriculum developer, Kevin presents at national, state and local conferences on multiculturalism and social studies education. His interests include the role teachers play in explaining issues of diversity to young children through the social studies curriculum.
Legal Fruit Loops: Tips for Advisors on Legal Rights for LGBT Student Groups
This workshop is designed to help faculty sponsors of student groups understand legal issues concerning LGBT student groups. Presenters will explore the legal rights related to funding, resource centers, social activities and protests. Presenters will also examine the university's role with regard to hate crimes, ROTC, domestic partner benefits and "married" student housing.
Facilitators: Charlene Smith, Professor of Law, Washburn University Law School, Topeka, KS has been the faculty sponsor of the student GLBT group since its inception in 1985. Amy Hyten is a third-year law student and student GLBT activist.
Organizing a Grassroots Women's Group
Tired of being the token dyke? Women at Northwestern University started a no-budget, no-frills women's group to provide opportunities for informal interaction among lesbian and bisexual women. Barriers to women's involvement in queer events and solutions to such barriers will be discussed, including casual gatherings, grassroots organizing and word-of-mouth techniques.
Shana Naomi Krochmal and Michelle Phillips are highly active members of Northwestern's queer community. Michelle is the facilitator of Queer Womyn You Rock! -- a satellite organization of BGALA at Northwestern. She is the co-founder of QWYR (a queer womyn's group on campus). Her goals for after graduation include pursuing a career in expressive arts therapies, moving to San Francisco with her partner, and of course fighting for the revolution. Shana handles public relations for BGALA and is conducting a long-term research project to assess the needs of the queer university community and has been involved in organizing multiple events. Among these are workshops on women's health, an anti-violence rally after a campus hate crime, AIDS-awareness issues, and a Queer Kiss-In.
Out and About
Are you troubled with being a student leader and being GAY? Students at campuses around the country struggle with the problem of being a student leader while being gay at the same time. In this fun and educational workshop students get the opportunity to share ideas on how to make the two work.
Facilitator: David Van Tassell is a junior at Georgia Southern University where he has served as President of TRIANGle, GSU's GLB Association. He has been listed as one of the top-ten most influential students on campus by the GSU campus newspaper. David served on the campus activities board as a student programmer for two years and currently choreographs the University's dance team.
Out on Campus: A Faculty-Staff Perspective
This panel discussion will consist of university/college faculty and staff. We will describe our experiences being out on campus and discuss the accompanying challenges and rewards. The presentation will include how to discuss sexual orientation when applying for a job, efforts in making the workplace more sensitive to GLBT issues, as well as how identity influences one's work. Participants will be invited to share their perspectives.
Umeeta Sadarangani has been a queer activist since coming out in 1991. She co-founded Penn State's Coalition of LGB Graduate Students and has been a guest speaker in a variety of classes and panels, speaking about her experiences as a lesbian Indian academic at Penn State. She was also a volunteer officer for the GLBT Switchboard of State College, Pennsylvania until moving to Illinois this year. She regularly includes GLB issues in her writing and literature courses at Parkland Community College in Illinois. Kimberlie Kranich, is the creator and host of the Purple Rabbit Show, a radio program aired on central-Pennsylvania NPR that features women's and LGB music, news, comedy, and interviews. Kimberlie is the producer/director/editor of two Emmy-nominated video documentaries which have aired around the country; one of them, Confronting AIDS in Rural America, is often used to teach about AIDS and to refute myths about people with AIDS. Kimberlie has been a guest speaker on GLBT issues in dozens of courses at Penn State and has also been an officer and volunteer with the GLBT Switchboard of State College and will be moving to the Midwest.
Queer @ Martin.Luther.Edu
This workshop is devised with faculty/staff advisors in mind, particularly those interested in facilitating support groups. Thriving at a small, Midwestern religiously-affiliated liberal arts college hasn't been easy. Luther College, which has close links to a moderately conservative church, is still struggling with gay-related issues, but progress can and has been made. Challenges and successes will be shared in this presentation.
Bruce Wrightsman, Professor of Religion and Philosophy, is the faculty advisor for AWARE, the Luther College GLB Support Group, which has been in existence for about 23 years and recently celebrated its first alumni reunion "Homecoming-out" on campus. An Alumni Network Newsletter has also been established. AWARE has finally achieved a level of acceptance and support that has enabled the creation of another support program: FLAG. This newer group consists mainly of straight members doing more educational work to promote diversity. A Drag Ball and a Cabaret in Drag are organized events of note this year.
Struggling to Include Sexual Orientation in Antidiscrimination Statutes: Case Studies from Illinois
This presentation will examine the role of state and local human rights commissions in efforts to pass and implement statutes and ordinances that include sexual orientation as a protected category. The analysis offers some explanations for the different and similar outcomes found in various settings.
Presenter Claude DuFour has been a lecturer in the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1990. He is a published author with a book chapter, "Mobilizing Gay Activists" in McFarland and Costain (1998) Social Movements and American Political Institutions.
Transforming Campus Lesbian-BiGay and Transgendered Sensitivity Training
Models
This session will provide an overview of LBG&T sensitivity training
initiatives that have been implemented at MSU. Participants will be given
opportunities to explore MSU's historical context for sensitivity training;
review training programs: "Creating Safe Space for Lesbian-Bi-Gay Persons'
and "Gender: Exploring Diversity and Acceptance", examine data
collected from training assessment and evaluation tools as utilized at Olin
Health Center; and discuss special challenges related to implementing LBG&T
sensitivity training.
Brent Bilodeau is the Assistant for Lesbian-Bi-Gay and Transgendered Concerns
at MSU. He provides consultation to student organizations and faculty/staff
groups; is involved with campus LBG&T support initiatives; and coordinates
sensitivity training initiatives. He is a member of the National Consortium
of LBG&T Campus Administrators.
John Huebler is currently President of MSU's Gay and Lesbian Faculty and
Staff Association (GLFSA) and has served it in various capacities since
its inception. He served as an Executive Committee member of the University-Wide
Task Force on Lesbian and Gay Issues, and has also been a board member and
fund raiser for local and state GLBT organizations.
Lisa Lees is a queer identified transsexual woman who has been very active
in Transgendered concerns on the MSU campus and in the mid-western region.
She has also written for regional publications, has a chapter on campus
concerns for an upcoming book, and spoke at the University of Chicato during
B-GLAD in 1997.
Pam Leiby is Associate Director of Olin Health Center at MSU. In 1996, Pam
served as an MSU Leadership Fellow, through which she designed a plan for
implementing University-Wide Task Force recommendations at Olin. In additional
to her role as an LBG&T ally in the health center, Pam has coordinated
a number of diversity training sessions for Olin Physicians and staff.
Kate Murphy serves as an Assistant Director in the Department of Residence
Life at MSU, where she also received her doctorate in Higher Education Administration.
She has provided leadership to numerous campus multilicultural initiatives,
and is a recipient of MSU's "Excellence in Diversity" award. She
has served as President of GLFSA and as a member of the University Wide
Task Force on Lesbian and Gay Issues.
Transgender Queers: Who Defines Us, Who Are Our Allies?
Forging an alternate gender identiy is a complex enough process; when questions about one's affectional preference are added to the mix, the difficulty increases geometrically. Who are my allies as I identify as a transgender gay man and whose defintions of those terms besides my own must I deal with? This workshop is intended to challenge people's preconceptions about gay/trans identity and the points where they intersect.
Facilitator: Thaniel Chase has been a Chicago activist in various queer/trans/leather communities for the past 20 years. Currently he's in a committed relationship and has recently started testosterone treatment with an eye for completing the legal transition.
United We Stand Divided We Fall
This is a motivating, highly interactive workshop on improving your team building skills -- skills that will bring you closer to the people around you and to your community. The workshop is filled with learning games -- such as the "Spider Web," which shows why everyone is needed -- and motivational fun. In this workshop, unity is the key to success and everyone is expected to participate.
Edward Dunlap has been trained as a team builder through the Regional II Operation Snowball training camp for two yearly one-week seminars. He has also gained over two years experience as a camp counselor , where he worked with underprivileged children to teach them that working together in the community is better than doing it alone.
Voice of Protest: Greg Hewett's To Collect the Flesh
Greg Hewett's book To Collect the Flesh will be the focus of this workshop, which will examine the poet's work through the lens of queer theory. Hewett's work offers a format from which the reader can experience the most fully humanized gender and sex roles afforded the postmodern reader.
George Boesger is a 43-year old graduate student in English, returning to school after a 20-year interlude with other expressions of life, including marriage, two children, divorce, working in the "real world" and coping with the travails involved therein. As he puts his outlook "I see my life as demographically half-over, and I find myself somewhat impatient with formal rubrics of academics. I detest vapid conversation and embrace the struggle denominational to the human experience wrung dry." Expect a refreshingly different workshop
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Go to Workshop Session 5