This semester I began a graduate assistantship with the Intercultural Development Office on the Gorham Campus. As part of my job I began working with the GLBTQA (Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Questioning, Allies) Resource Center in the Woodbury Campus Center. I had no idea how much I would learn from this experience.
Perhaps the first thing that I learned was what the letters of this resource center stood for and meant. From there I began to learn about myself and the power stereotypes and society have on people.
The first time I walked into the resource center, I will admit I was uncomfortable. I felt very angry with myself for having these feelings, but I could not deny they were there. I was thinking about what the other students sitting outside the center thought about me as I walked into the center. Did they think I was gay? How could I have these feelings? I have always seen myself as an understanding and open-minded person. Needless to say, I had some thinking to do.
I began to realize these feelings might be similar to the feelings many members of the GLBTQA community feel daily. Today it seems much of the discrimination that occurs is done in a subtle manner. Could I have treated a person of the GLBTQA community like any other person if I was scared to walk into the center? Well, I think that the answer was “No” at that time.
So I had a decision to make, a battle to fight in my mind. Would I shy away from the battle with my own stereotypes or would I face the dark part of my mind and increase my understanding about a group of people? Well, I chose the latter and I am very glad that I did so. After only a couple of weeks hanging out in the center and talking to the students, an amazing thing occurred. All of a sudden I was sitting in the center and talking with people and it never crossed my mind that I was in the GLBTQA center! I was just sitting in a room at the campus center, talking with good people. What I thought would be a battle had turned out to be little more than a tussle and another little dark corner of my mind was lit up.
At this point I feel that I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn to become the “A” in GLBTQA, but I am working on it. I would challenge others in the University of Southern Maine community to grab a flashlight and head for the dark corners of their minds. I am by no means climbing on a soapbox as I feel that I have just as much to learn about having an open mind as everyone else. But what would happen on our campus if everyone worked on respecting and embracing all the diversity that this campus and the Portland community have to offer? Many people talk about their liberal open minds, but have they been put to the test?
In a recent discussion with a student about the importance of the GLBTQA center to her, she said some things that made me realize just how powerful this resource is. She said that if it were not for the resource center and the support she received there last year, she probably would not have “come out of the closet.” What a powerful place this center is! I encourage you to stop by a GLBTQA resource center or group and talk with the members, learn something about a community of people that have great courage and much to teach us about being better human beings.