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Workshop helps students find acceptance

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by Beth Mueller

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

University of Wisconsin students discussed Tuesday the challenges associated with coming out, in a first-of-its-kind event at UW.

The workshop, organized by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Campus Center, consisted of an informational session with topics including popularly misused terms, case studies on coming out, tips for talking to parents and roommates, and some models for possible reactions from people after coming out. Students were also given opportunities to participate and ask each other and workshop facilitators' questions.

"We really have kind of a mandate to provide a huge variety of services, and one of the things that we sometimes forget — we don't forget, but it's harder sometimes — to really provide assistance to students who are coming out," Eric Trekell, director of the LGBT Campus Center said. "It's such a personal experience, and sometimes students really are inhibited."

"Coming Out 101" was the second event in the center's programming for National Coming Out Week.

"Personally, I think that because there are a few people that already know I'm trans, it probably wasn't quite as much use for me as it was for other people in the discussion," said one UW sophomore, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I had actually expected (a session) maybe a little bit more in-depth, but I thought it did a really good job of explaining a lot of essential information that every LGBT student should know."

Discussion included identification of certain pervasive stereotypes of different orientations, and participants voiced their disagreement with these stereotypes as well as the ways to combat them.

"It's important for out students to be the cultural guides for students who are coming out on campus," said Maren Greathouse, associate student services specialist for the LGBT Campus Center.

A UW freshman who identified herself only as Dana, said the discussion portion of the presentation was especially useful because she had little experience dealing with LGBT issues before the workshop.

"I had a lot of stereotypes coming into [the workshop], that I would never voice publicly, of course, but talking to real people about it was really cool," Dana said.

Another focus of the workshop was to provide information on both LGBT issues and opportunities for campus involvement dealing with these issues, including groups ranging from the LGBT Speakers Bureau to the Ten Percent Society, to a gender and sexuality book club.

"I thought it was very cool how many opportunities there are to get involved in LGBT programs," said a UW freshman identified as Danny, who also attended the workshop.

The LGBT campus center has activities all week surrounding National Coming Out Day on Thursday.

"The week in general was just to provide a variety of different activities — social, informative, educational — to really just kick off the year, get new people involved," Liz Yermes, an event coordinator for the LGBT Campus Center said.

The "Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights" rally and overnight vigil, focusing on LGBT allies' calls for political attention to LGBT issues, will take place tonight at the Capitol Square at 6 p.m.

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