Common Ground (LGBT+) Staff and Faculty Social and 'It Gets Better'.

Hey y'all!

It's just about the middle of the week, but I swear the closer I get to graduation the faster days fly by (wasn't it just Wednesday yesterday??).

In between extended library sessions this afternoon and evening, I took a break over at the Center for Women and Gender where our LGBT+ club hosted a staff and faculty social. Common Ground (our LGBT+ club) meets every week, and is a large part of the LGBT+ presence on campus. We organize speakers, events and other programming to promote LGBT+ issues and pursue policy that creates a safer space on campus.

Every so often we get together for a business-free meeting, and invite faculty and staff in the community to a social for snacks and good conversation! Today there was a great turnout; the CWG's common room (pictures of the room can be found in this post) ran out of seating room, and we spent about 90 minutes talking about relevant/current issues, as well as some LGBT+ history here at Saint Mike's! Apparently the first organization for non-straight, non-cisgender identified people began here in 1984, and we've had some such club or group (under different names) ever since. Apparently the student who founded the inaugural club returned for a CG meetings a few years back, which we thought was pretty powerful.

We also talked about two media projects that the Saint Mike's community has pursued to promote inclusion on campus. At the moment, senior student-athletes are compiling an SMC-edition 'You Can Play' video, which aims to promote awareness and acceptance of gay athletes in sports. This one is still in  the works, but as I understand it should be out in the near future! The second media project was done a few years back as part of the 'It Gets Better' campaign, and similarly focuses on gay athletes in sports. I'm not sure what position these campaigns take on the inclusion of trans* athletes in sports, but if I find anything new I'll be sure to share that here. In any case, you can check out Saint Mike's 'It Gets Better' video below.



Anyway I have to get back to my studies, but cheers to fostering acceptance of socially marginalized identities!

Thanks for reading!