Assistance to Individual Students
We meet individually with students by appointment and/or drop-in
meetings when possible, providing mentoring, guidance, advocacy,
support, information, and
access to resources. Conversations focus on the specific needs of each student,
as each student defines them, including:
• Academic Counseling
• Personal & Relationship Concerns
• Coming Out
• Identity Development
• Setting & Meeting Goals
• Managing Stress
• Accessing and Relating with LGBTQ Community
• Responding to Harrassment, Homophobia, and/or Hate
• Healing Internalized Oppression . . . .
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You’re also welcome to come by
just to hang out and talk!!!!
Contact us to make an appointment with Ric.
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Guidance to Student Organizations
We assist LGBTQ-related student groups and organizations, both in formalized “faculty
advisor” relationships, as well as informal guidance and support.
We assist the student leaders in developing their leadership skills and
in helping
their
organizations meet the needs of their membership. We help groups grow in
areas such as how they manage diversity, maintain membership interest and
participation,
organize events, develop resources, deal with conflict, conduct meetings
effectively, and plan for the future.
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LGBTQ Speakers Bureau and Panel Discussions
We respond to requests from student organizations, community groups, and
academic classes for presentations on LGBTQ issues. We find that, whenever
appropriate
and possible, organizing diverse panels of experienced LGBTQ student speakers
to speak to groups with their heart-felt stories, is an extremely effective
way of educating others about the LGBTQ community.
Contact us to request student speakers.
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Professionally-led Workshops and Presentations
In addition to organizing and moderating panels of student speakers,
our LGBTQ staff has designed and conducted a wide range of workshops
and presentations
on LGBTQ concerns and student diversity matters. Topics include:
• LGBTQ
identity development
• Building
skill as an ally
• LGBTQ
health care needs
• Mental
health concerns of LGBTQ youth
• Gender
and Transgender issues
• Body
Image, Substance Use, Domestic Violence in LGBTQ Community
• Healing
Internalized Oppression
And many more . . . . |
Click here for descriptions of Ric’s Workshop Topics
Contact us to request a workshop
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Consultation and Technical Assistance
We are available to assist Mason faculty, staff, and administrators;
community members; members of other universities; and others on many
LGBTQ-related issues and concerns they face. Examples include: handling
classroom situations, curriculum development, policies and procedures,
housing/residence life situations, LGBTQ health and mental health,
LGBT
resources, and staff training.
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Anti-Oppression Programming
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Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere. |
Martin Luther King Jr.,
Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 |
LGBTQ Services is strongly committed
to helping people heal from and reduce - with a vision toward eliminating
- all forms of oppression.
We understand
- and
encourage others to see – that the oppressions of racism, sexism,
classism, anti-Semitism (and other religious/cultural oppression)
are inextricably linked with homophobia, transphobia, heterosexism,
and
many other forms
of
intolerance
facing LGBTQ folks.
Toward the goal of combating oppression, we provide leadership, support,
and encourage all to participate in the following campus programs:
| 1. |
The Safe
Zone program, increasing the number and effectiveness
of visible allies to LGBTQ people, is administered by Diversity
Programs & Services’ LGBTQ Services, and is described
in detail elsewhere on this site. |
| 2. |
The National
Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) – is
dedicated to ending the mistreatment of every group based
on nationality, race, class, gender, religion,
sexual orientation, age, physical ability, and job or life
circumstances. The GMU/Northern Virginia NCBI office is located
in the Multicultural Research and Resource Center. The NCBI
Team seeks to develop leaders, both on and off campus, who
can take principled stands, model being fierce allies for
all groups, confront emotional group conflicts in an effort
to
resolve those issues that keep us divided, and build coalitions.
The Team trains campus and community leaders in the skills
of prejudice reduction, intergroup conflict resolution, and
coalition building.
Learn more about NCBI
trainings and workshops offered throughout the year. |
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National Coming-Out Day Observance
National Coming Out Day was founded on October 11, 1988 by Robert
Eichberg and Jean O'Leary marking the anniversary of the 1987 March
on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Since then, on or near
every October 11, thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
people and allies celebrate NCOD; with workshops, speak-outs, rallies
and other kinds of events all aimed at showing the public that
LGBT people are everywhere.
Eichberg, who died in 1995 of complications
from AIDS, said, in a 1993 interview, "Most people think
they don't know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact everybody does.
It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are
and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes."
And that is the point of National
Coming Out Day - to let people see us, who we are, people they
already like, know and respect - who happen to be gay, lesbian,
bisexual, or transgender. That is our strongest tool in the
movement toward full human rights. |
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National Coming Out Day has taken on
a life of its own. In some towns and campuses people will all wear
jeans to show solidarity
(which offers its own amusement for the folks who didn't know
what statement others would think they were making when they
selected
that day's wardrode). Like all good events, sub-themes develop
annually. "Coming Out in the Workplace" and "Coming
Out at School" are but two examples from years past.
For a history of National Coming Out Day, check out Human
Rights Campaign.
At Mason, our NCOD observances have included presentations on
LGBT scholarship by out LGBT GMU faculty, symbolic “Coming
Out of the Closet” photo opportunities (complete with doorways
to step through) in the Quad, prejudice reduction workshops,
to Mason's OUTList project (in which we post listings of over
one hundred LGBTQ and ally faculty, staff, students and alumni
OUTing themselves in support of NCOD). The LGBTQ Office organizes
these observances in conjunction with
Pride
Alliance,
and ally
student
groups and
Mason departments.
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Pride Week Programs & Activities
The June 1969 “Stonewall Rebellion” against police
- led by mostly young working class, youth of color, Puerto Rican
and Black drag queens - at the Stonewall bar on New York City's
Christopher
Street,
is
often
thought of as marking the beginning of modern gay liberation
in the U.S. In the 1940's, 50's and 60's, police had extorted
money
from the owners of nightclubs that served gay folks. They often
raided the clubs to demonstrate their muscle, arresting the patrons,
publishing their names, and sometimes beating or raping them
in custody. For the first time ever, instead of passively accepting
the police brutality, the patrons fought back.
A year later, activists in other cities were thinking of ways
to mark the anniversary. During the 1970’s various groups
began to observe Pride Day, on weekends in June. Today, the holiday
is
celebrated as the anniversary of the modern movement for the
human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
For more on the history of LGBT Pride celebrations as they’ve
grown over time, check out these links: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/history/LGBThistoryJune.htm http://www.kqed.org/topics/history/heritage/lgbt/history-links.jsp
In our Northern Virginia and DC area, pride celebrations include
Youth Pride, Black Pride, Leather Pride, the Dyke March, and Capital
Pride.
University campuses vary widely in whether, how, and when they
organize LGBT Pride observances. Here at Mason, Pride Week takes
place in early April (close to the end of Spring semester, but
prior to June when many students are off campus for the summer).
Our activities include speakers and performers, panel
discussions, dances, poetry readings and open mic events, and
our annual Drag Show.
Please check out our past Pride Week calendars
of events.
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Transgender Awareness
Transgendered and gender-variant people are the most stigmatized
and misunderstood of the larger gender/sexual minority communities
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender). While greater numbers of
college students today are coming out as trans and/or are grappling
with their gender identity or expression, the challenges these
students face are seldom understood by those who are not transgendered
themselves.
At Mason’s LGBTQ Office we offer support and connection
with resources around many of the issues trans students face:
navigating
campus facilities (bathrooms, showers, changing areas); finding
gender specialists to assist in transition; help in upcoming
travel and family visits; assistance in managing name change
while at
Mason. We assist trans and gender variant students in supporting
each other, through groups like TransMason, mentioned elsewhere.
Transgender folks are also on the front line facing abuse and
violence due to sexism, homophobia and transphobia. The National
Transgender
Day of Remembrance is set aside to memorialize those who
were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The
event
is held
in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November
28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web
project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita
Hester’s
murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has
yet to be solved. Close to home in 2003, over a five day
period in nearby Washington, DC, two transgendered women
were killed,
and a third critically injured in anti-transgender attacks.
Bella Evangelista was killed on August 16th, Emonie Spaulding
was shot
to death in the evening of 20th, and a third victim was found
unconscious and critically wounded on the 21st.
The LGBTQ office is committed to making Mason a safer and more
inclusive environment in every way possible, for our transgender
students.
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