Pride Alliance Speaks Up About Experiences on Campus
by Jessica Lynch
Cape Cod Community College states that it strives to provide a safe, accepting environment for all students, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community, but do the 4Cs students in the community feel this is the case at the West Barnstable campus? Members of Pride Alliance at 4Cs spoke about their experiences on campus and actions that students and faculty can take to create a more inclusive environment for everyone. All student responses were given with the understanding that they would be kept anonymous.
(Graphic by Dolfina Allan; Pride Alliance Logo by Rachel Martin)
Q: Do you feel accepted on campus?
Student A: To a majority, yes. Faculty who are in the community, definitely, but there have been issues where we have been discriminated face to face, in person, where people have literally said to our face, you’re sinning and things like that.
Student B: Specifically, that being trans is the gateway to hell, which was a wild statement.
Student C: More than once.
Student A: Someone said that to my face. In a safe zone space.
Student B: That person has since been removed and has not been back.
Student A: But there have been issues on campus.
Student B: More recently, we had to cover vandalism in the men’s bathroom.
(The students described a common derogatory slur used against members of the LGBTQIA+ community being written in the men’s bathroom.)
Student B: While most faculty that I have come across are wildly accepting, because that’s the community I try to foster. It’s not an experience without prejudice, no matter where I go, even though I try to foster my own community within that. I’m not trying to interact with these professors that I know will give me a rough time. The issues I have are not just within a campus society, it’s more of a general -- if I see, for instance, an older, white professor I’m not going to immediately be like “Here are my pronouns” because I’m worried about the prejudice that I’m going to face, which is objectively (lousy) on my part because they could be accepting, but because of the off chance they aren’t, I don’t tend to project myself out there, even though I do put my pronouns in my emails and I introduce myself with them.
Student A: We have had issues on this campus.
Student C: There is a member of this club who is not here today, and I would like to speak on their behalf as well. I know for a fact (they are) only “out” in certain classrooms for the same reason (that Student B mentioned) because certain professors or certain professionals or even other students will be problematic about it.
Student B: It’s not just an issue of who will be accepting or not, it’s also understanding. I consistently struggle with telling people, not because I worry I’m going to face prejudice, but because a lot of people will turn off their minds as soon as I start to explain something. When I tell someone I use they/them pronouns but I’m not non-binary, they immediately are like “What do you mean?” because their understanding of a queer context or even a sub context is so shallow that they’re missing any vital piece of biographic information.
Q: What do you think people, students or faculty, can do to make you feel more accepted?
Student B: Ask all of your students their pronouns instead of just the students you think look gay.
Student A: Go to Safe Zone training that we’re planning. We’re working on that as a group and we’re working with administration to get this going.
Student B: Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions. I think a lot of people are wanting to be more accepting, but they don’t know how because they’re worried about offending someone and that leads to more of “Well you can’t ask any questions these days because you’re just going to offend everyone.” … There’s no safe space for people to ask these questions which is why Safe Zone training is so important.
Student A: Which is why we’re working on that and we’re hoping to plan to do it twice every semester.
(The Pride Alliance had their first Safe Zone training on April 16.)
Q: What does Safe Zone training entail?
Student A: It’s a bit of everything. We’ll be doing activities.
Student B: It’s broken into pieces where we talk about different gender identities, different labels, so there’s a vocab piece and there is a study of privilege and how privilege works and all these different things, and then a large question-and-answer portion.
Student C: A big portion of it is being able to ask questions.
Student A: Yes, in a safe space.
Student C: All the stuff that you know you probably shouldn’t ask but you want to know. That’s the time and place to do it so it’s a positive learning environment.
Student A: And we genuinely want, especially staff, to come to this. As well as students, but once you complete this training we’re going to, hopefully, give you a card or a sticker and you can display that in your office or on something so students know “OK, this person has some inkling and knowledge of what I may be experiencing.” It’s a safe zone. Really, we just want people to come and listen and ask questions.
(The conversation shifted back to what can be done on campus to create a more accepting environment for the LGBTQIA+ community. Student B shared a story with the group.)
Student B: For me, this is through no fault of my professor, who I adore and he’s perfect about it now, but when I first enrolled in my … class, my birth name was on the list and he was going through and calling people (by the names listed on the sheet) instead of checking with students beforehand and (asking) “What name should I assign to everybody?” (For professors,) on the first day of class, if you’re going around and telling fun facts about yourselves, (instead of asking) “What are your pronouns?” start with an example: “I’m Professor So and So, my pronouns are these, here is my class.”
Student A: If students see a professor giving pronouns, even if they are not part of the community, it gives them a safe sense of security knowing they are willing to share that, and it makes the student feel comfortable sharing themselves.
Student B: I can’t emphasize enough, don’t just ask a group what their pronouns are because you see one queer-looking person. A lot of people who you think are straight are queer.
Student C: It just needs to be standard operation.
Student A: It may be an unintentional bias, but we do have them, and it can be intentional at times.
Student B: When my hair was longer and I dressed a lot more fem, a lot of people just didn’t understand that I was not a girl, so they never asked my pronouns because they didn’t think to ask because I didn’t look gay.
Student D: My English teacher … at the start of the semester came out. I find it kind of sad because he said he came out because he didn’t care what others thought. I felt sad for him, but I was also happy for him. Him coming out was like “Oh!” I immediate felt so much safer.
(All of the students in the group expressed their admiration and love for Professor Bill Berry -- he/they -- and how they feel safe expressing their thoughts with him. The conversation turned back to the topic of what can be done to make LGBTQIA+ students feel more accepted on campus.)
Student B: Include queer people in your curriculum, especially if you teach history or English. Include queer people in your discussions. (Ensure you are) checking your biases because a lot of it is unintentional that (leads) people (to) feel unsafe to ask these questions because when you’re talking about certain time periods in history you often glaze over the intense and obvious position queer people always had in society and (this) leads to people being like “Non-binary is a new thing.”
Students in the group laughed and all said, “No, it’s not.”
Student B: Leaving queer people out of your history leads people to not understanding that queer people have been here a while.
Student A: I’m so excited Professor Berry is starting a Queer Literature course.
(All the students in the group expressed excitement over the course.)
Student A: That’s an amazing start, but just like (Student B) said, let’s do history because that’s so huge.
Student C: There’s a Women in History Class --
Student A: There’s a Women in History class, but why not Queer History?
Student B: Even in Biology, specifically emphasizing the biology of non-binary (people) because people often have this idea that cis is a slur. I don’t understand how you are pushing that narrative when it’s a normal Latin pre-fix. (Put) an emphasis on fostering a safe environment. You don’t even have to go that far out of your way. I’m not asking you to change your whole (curriculum), but at least mention that queer people exist.
- Do you have anything else that you’d like to add?
Student B: I would definitely ask professors to do their own research. There are so, so many resources online, especially for teachers and professors, on how to be accepting for queer students. They just don’t know it’s out there because they don’t think to Google it.
Student A: I love that (Pride Alliance) is here, but I don’t think people realize that this is not just for people who are in the community, but also allies. We are open to having someone come in to a meeting and say “Hey, I have some questions” and asking. That’s totally fine. That’s what we want. We want to see more interaction and engagement in our group, so anybody is welcome in this Pride Alliance group.
Student B: And also, listen to your queer students and support them because I feel like it goes without saying that we are being systematically oppressed and killed in this country, and a lot of people are not aware of how heavy a toll it takes on someone. Even if we are in a safe space, I am watching all of my friends fear for their lives in other states.
Student A: But even in this state, even on this campus, we’ve had issues.
Student B: Even though we are a safe and liberal state, there are still people who are trying to stop us from being that. There are people currently being killed for their identity that are a part of our community that people think “Oh, but that’s not you, you’re not in that state.”
Q: When does Pride Alliance typically meet?
Student A: We typically meet Tuesdays from 1 to 2 p.m. in Upper Grossman. We also have a Friday Zoom meeting from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. That’s another thing we wanted to do for virtual students, because we know we have people who are fully virtual, and we still want them to be a part of this community, so we also do Friday Zooms.
Student B: I’d also like to open that if you have questions and you don’t know who to ask, email us. The email is only read by our club officers. It’s a safe email for you to ask questions in. (Questions like) “How do I support my friend?” or “How do I come out to my professor?”
Student C: “How do I change my name on the school website?”
Student B: (Questions) that even if you Google it, answers specific to this campus won’t come up. (Students could ask) “Do you know this specific professor and how could I come out to them?”
(To reach out to Pride Alliance email them at: [email protected].)
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