On the agenda for 2015, the GLBT Center and Women’s Center aim to increase equity and social justice on NC State’s campus and community through the expansion of programs and discussions dedicated to these communities.
Both centers plan to connect with other campus organizations and student groups to spread their messages.
The GLBT Center is partnering with oSTEM, a professional development organization that promotes science and math fields within the GLBT community, according to Renee Wells, director of the GLBT Center.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Center will be partnering with Student Health to tackle issues like body image and eating disorders by hosting a movie series, according to Otis McGresham, assistant director of the Women’s Center.
Wells said GLBT students are faced with answering a series of questions about their identities. Some include: What do you put on your resume that may or may not disclose your identity? What do you bring up in your interviews that can out you, and what is the impact of that?
“We’re working with them to do presentations about working on cover letters and resumes within the context of being GLBT,” said Wells.
One of the discussions the GLBT Center is confronting is the conversation of same-sex marriage.
“The same ideology that makes us have to fight for the right to get married is the same ideology that makes it illegal for workers to get fired on the basis of being LGBT and is the same ideology that makes kids get kicked out of their house for coming out,” Wells said.
Wells stresses the importance of identifying this ideology and the discrimination that causes it.
“We need to expand and deepen this conversation to make the change we want to see,” Wells said.
The Women’s Center is currently in the middle of Red Flag, a campaign to raise awareness of the red flag warnings that appear in violent relationships.
“We placed hundreds of red flags all over to campus to show NC State that red flags are all around them and that it’s important to recognize them and draw attention that they are everywhere,” McGresham said.
Other events on the Women’s Center 2015 calendar include a series of workshops about personal, sexual and bystander violence.
“Our goal is that these workshops will keep people constantly aware of the impact of domestic violence and the impact is has on our community,” said McGresham.
The GLBT Center will also be hosting workshops that deal with social justice issues and how they impact NC State, as well as asexual, pansexual and bisexual workshops.
“It seems like just four letters, but there is a lot that goes in within them in terms of sexuality, gender, identification, expression,” said Wells. “There are all of these different shades you can occupy on all these different letters, and we’re trying to develop a sense of all of the nuances that the community experiences through the workshops.”
Elle, author of “The Fall: An Autobiography of an Alter Ego,” will speak about her experience in an abusive relationship as part of her book tour, another event hosted by the Women’s Center.
The GLBT Center has a library that contains GLBT books and journals, which they said they hope will be integrated into the NCSU library system.
“This will allow students to come up to the Center and check them out for things like LGBT research,” said Wells.
Also on the 2015 GLBT agenda is the creation of an informal mentoring system between GLBT faculty and students, free and confidential STD screening and the providing of free condoms.
Gender equity and social justice connect with everyone, said McGresham.
“We just have to get people to recognize this. That’s why we’re looking for different ways to get people connected with us.”
