“Gay people? I have no problem with them. As long as they don’t touch me, I’m good.” A bit contradictive, isn’t it?
There was a wide panel of discussions being held at the Newman Conference Center (yes, I forgot the date) but the one that particularly caught my eye was the LGBT one, probably because the others seemed a tad boring and nothing worth writing about. What seemed to be the least boring panel discussion turned out to be something worth much more.
When Dajelyn and I first stepped foot in the room, it was a bit awkward because well, we were pretty much the only freshmen there. There was one senior and one junior. The rest of the group was professional adults with outstanding credentials that ranged from vice president of the arts department to the president of an LGBT-related club. So, when it was my turn to introduce myself, I said the only thing I could think of, “My name’s Bianca and I’m only a freshman so I don’t have any particular amazing credentials like you guys.” Everyone laughed so the atmosphere around the room was undoubtedly friendly.
The spokesman, Ryan, handed each of us a nametag and on it, he asked us to write the following; “Hello, my name is ________________ and I’m gay.” Once he said that, Dajelyn and I looked at each other, grinned, and said, “Cool!” I have to say, we were pretty naïve at that point. The fact of the matter is, both her and I love gay people. But until the end of the meeting, we never really knew how things are like for a gay person. At the discussion, we learned that there are many things in life everyone does that may seem offensive to them, little things such as the most widely used phrase, “That’s so gay.”
“How was the test?”
“Ugh, it was so gay.”
“Man, I gotta do this gay-ass homework.”
Honestly, those phrases don’t even make sense. How can you associate your homework with homosexuality? And even if you do, then you’re only using the term “gay” in a negative sense. If we could use “that’s so gay”, why can’t we use “that’s so straight”? Now it definitely sounds like it doesn’t make any sense. Well, neither is “that’s so gay”. So please, try to refrain from using this phrase.
Ryan then went on to discuss something new that Baruch would be doing about all this; a Safe Zone. Eventually, we will all see posters of a rainbow-colored Bearcat paw and in it describes the purpose of Safe Zone. It is the one place where LGBT members are not judged at all and can be themselves. The goal of Safe Zone is to make the entire Baruch campus one because unfortunately, according to statistics, only approximately 24% of the student body says they’re comfortable with LGBT related issues.
I’m really glad I came to this panel because it made me realize that there aren’t enough people that understand what being LGBT really is and how they can suffer from things like being bullied, receiving death threats, or being social outcasts. Take a look at Tyler Clementi. All this simply because someone happens to be sexually attracted to someone else of the same sex? That’s ridiculous. Everyone wants love and that special person they want to spend the rest of their lives with. LGBT members are no different. Love knows no boundaries and it definitely doesn’t determine gender. Take a look at Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi. They are the perfect example of a beautiful gay couple absolutely head over heels in love with each other. It is couples like them that have people realize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay.
This panel has definitely opened up my eyes to LGBT related issues and I hope that soon, Safe Zones will be available in every single corner of the Baruch campus.
