Queer? Ally? Get involved!

Are you queer? Are you an ally? Are you just curious to find out more about the LGBTQA community at University of Idaho and in Moscow? Check out the Gay Straight Alliance at UI and get to know some of the amazing people who help make Moscow a more inclusive and educated community.

“The group is open to anybody,” said UI GSA President, Whitney Chapman. “Unless somebody comes into the space and is hostile or [...] if somebody anti-queer comes into the space obviously we’re not going to allow for that.”

UI GSA has between 30-35 active members and meets every Wednesday at 8:15pm in the Student Diversity Center located within the Office of Multicultural Affairs on the second floor of the Teaching and Learning Center. The group’s mission statement reads: The mission of the Gay Straight Alliance is to promote a positive and inclusive atmosphere for all people. The GSA strives to encourage individual growth and understanding by improving support for queer people and allies.

Chapman said GSA and its members have had a big impact on her life since she arrived in Moscow from Southern Idaho in early 2005 and then again in 2010.

“I came out through GSA,” Chapman said. “I’ve met the majority of my friends and social network and a lot of allies that I associate with [...] I think just being able to give queer students a place on campus where they can go and meet and talk about shared experiences is really helpful and is really helpful to academic success. That was missing at Idaho State University; where I went my first year, and [...] the lack of a Women’s Center and real strong queer group was part of the reason I left.”

UI’s GSA has grown in numbers since Chapman became involved. She said enrollment and interests change based on how the active members of the group want to get involved and change things. The group dynamic has changed over time and Chapman said she has noticed a difference between what the group was when she left and came back again: “[The first time I was here] we did an alternative service break trip. We went to Salt Lake City, Utah and worked with homeless youth and did a variety of other service projects while we were there. That solely happened because of the group of students that were involved. When I came back GSA had kind of evolved into a more social group. Right now, we’re somewhere in between.”

UI GSA has several different events they host or help put together every year, including National Coming Out Day (spearheaded by the UI LGBTQA Office), which is Thursday October 11 (today!) and Queer Prom, which happens every spring. Right now, the group is concentrating their efforts on fundraising so they can help send members to the ‘Power of One’ Leadership Conference that happens every spring. Chapman said this conference is definitely where most of the group’s energy goes. Last year, nine members were fully funded and able to attend the conference at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

“We’re a little more activisty but try to maintain a more solid social network where people can come and have fun and have a relaxed meeting [...] students’ interests change year to year, semester to semester even, depending on who’s in leadership positions, who’s actually attending the meetings regularly. Those folks usually have more say in what’s going on that people who only come like a couple times a semester,” Chapman said.

Chapman said the goal of UI GSA is to make everyone feel welcome and safe but also to bring awareness to the community that the queer community exists and deserves the same rights and freedoms as everybody else: “There are a pretty large number of students on this campus who are queer students or who are ally students. It’s important for those students to have representation in ASUI, to be recognized as an ASUI group, but also to have a place to go outside of the regular school routine of getting up and going to classes everyday. It also creates a campus environment that is more aware that queer people exist. I think a big part of the existence of the LGBTQA office is because there was a very strong queer student group on campus that was making it very apparent that there is this group of people on this campus. Our university says that it’s all about diversity and so in order to really be all about diversity they can’t not acknowledge the queer community.”

F-Word Live!

The f-word has been offending the masses and creating chaos for over a hundred years now. We at the Women’s Center have dedicated a whole night to celebrating it.

This Friday, September 21st (today!) at 7:00pm in the Kenworthy, the Women’s Center is hosting the F-Word Live! Poetry Slam as part of our 40th Anniversary events. That’s “F” for feminism, if you haven’t gotten that already. The event is free, the poetry is original, and the topic is hot!

Please note, performances may contain explicit content. The show is intended for mature audiences, and as such, discretion is advised.

Doors open at 6:30pm. For more information, check out the Women’s Center website or email Dr. Tracy Craig.

See you there!

Focus on health, relieve stress, improve performance

Hannah Blankenship

College is stressful.

Between classes, jobs, extracurricular activities, living group responsibilities, internships, TA periods and more, it is unsurprising that many college students turn to unhealthy means to cope with pressures.

Perhaps just as unsurprising is the fact that women are more susceptible to these pressures. According to the American Psychology Association:

“Women are more likely than men (28 percent vs. 20 percent) to report having a great deal of stress (8, 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale).”

Too often young women will cope with this stress by turning to dangerous activities to deal with the pressure. From binge drinking to drug use, campus can foster an atmosphere that favors easy, fun distractions instead of focusing on the real problem.

So between classes and activities, how do students make the time to deal with stress and take care of themselves? Fitting a big block of time to cope into any student’s schedule isn’t realistic, but what is feasible is taking small steps every day (or at least a few times a week,) to make sure your stress is manageable.

The University of Idaho campus offers a myriad of resources to help young women maintain and improve physical health.

Top Ten List for 2011

Heather Shea Gasser

As 2011 draws to a close, many organizations take stock of the year’s successes. In the final days before the new year, news groups, political organizations and others traditionally post lists of notable contributions by women in, for example, world events and music, while others post examples of sexism that continue to pervade our culture.

For the staff and students of the University of Idaho Women’s Center and LGBTQA Office, 2011 was a year filled with many successes and contributions to the campus and our local region. In the spirit of the year-end list, here’s a list of the Top 10 Accomplishments for the University of Idaho Women’s Center and LGBTQA Office in 2011.

1. Raised Over $4,500 for anti-violence initiatives through our annual production of The Vagina Monologues and showcased independent women filmmakers at LunaFest. Eve Ensler’s celebrated play continues to raise awareness and funds to help end gender-based violence worldwide. 2011 was no exception. We contributed $500 to the International V-Day campaign, and $2,000 each to Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse and to Fanm Kouraj, a women’s organization in La Gônave, Haiti.  Another important annual event that we hosted, LunaFest Women’s Film Festival, drew a crowd of over 250 to the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre this past March. A fundraiser for breast cancer awareness, LunaFest showcases short independent films by women.

Domestic Violence is No Joking Matter

Lysa Salsbury

A friend of mine recently posted a photograph of her bruised elbow, the result of slipping on concrete at the local pool, on her Facebook Wall. Messages of commiseration and sympathy flooded in from friends and family. Then one friend commented, “Sounds like a good cover story for some domestic violence!! (sic) LOL!”

The use of this common acronym sent a wave of shock through my conscience. “LOL.” In what possible way could domestic violence be considered something to laugh about? What was this person thinking? What kind of society laughs at a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the perpetration (however ridiculous) of domestic violence?

Sadly, this was not the first casual reference to relationship violence that I encountered this summer. In late May, sitting on a train bound from London at 1 a.m. after a night out, I overheard a group of four men and one woman in my compartment talking about an acquaintance’s sexual assault. “Yeah,” said one man, “well, I think some women really just ask to be raped, don’t they? I mean, that’s what you get when you dress like a slag (British slang for slut).” The polemicized debate over the SlutWalk phenomenon was still fresh in my mind, and these words hit me like a slap in the face. But no-one in the group disagreed with his sentiment. To the contrary, several of them hooted and nodded their assent.

Take Back the Night

Erin Fenner

Marchers for UI's 2011 Take Back the Night

Over 300 people marched against violence on Thursday for the University of Idaho’s annual Take Back the Night. Marchers carried signs, and many smiled while they chanted.

Lysa Salsbury, the program coordinator for the Women’s Center and an organizer for this event, said that Take Back the Night is designed to be an empowering statement for women and other marginalized groups to demand their right to safety.

“It’s just promoting the idea that people should feel safe to move freely without fear of attack,” Salsbury said.

Here are some of the voices from the event:

She said the march also functioned as a way to encourage survivors of assault to use their voice. That’s why, by the end of the march, people were encouraged to give testimonies about their personal experiences with assault. Several people did get up and tell their stories – demanding an end to sexual violence, and demonstrating solidarity.

“I’m in awe, and touched and moved that so many people came up on the stage and talked about what happened to them,” she said.

Salsbury said she wanted the march to create an awareness that would encourage bystander intervention “against a culture that still accepts or trivializes assault.”

Let’s Talk (Frankly) About Sex

Kirsten Ward

 It’s a cliché at this point, but American popular culture is saturated with sex. Film, television, music, books, advertisements and more unabashedly incorporate sex, or, at the very least, sexy people. Our pop culture would lead one to believe sex- inside and outside traditional marriage – is becoming increasingly normalized; that we as a society are comfortable with sexual desire in a myriad of forms.

Yet, at the same time, the public discourse remains largely silent on sex in the real world. We acknowledge it, but rarely openly discuss individual preferences and desires. Not everyone fits the model offered by pop culture and societal norms, and people may worry that their desires are not “normal”. They keep a lid on their desires, worrying expression may label them deviant. Enter the Vagina Dialogues.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Shaina Craner

On my first day at the University of Idaho, I went to orientation at the Kibbie Dome with two of my female friends. We sat through several minutes of genial welcomes and introductions before being shown a video on what to expect in our time at the university. We were told that in our four years here, one in every four women and one in every five men present would be a victim of sexual assault or attempted assault.

Lysa Salsbury, Program Coordinator at the Women’s Center, said that number has dropped over the years to only one in every five women on college campuses. This is due in large part to the collaborative efforts of universities and government institutions to create better reporting and response systems. Vice President Joe Biden announced a new sexual assault awareness campaign that he hopes will help to end sexual violence on college campuses, and not just against women.

“If we are going to have a safe and inclusive campus, we need to encompass all violence,” Salsbury said. “There is now a broader representation (to include) violence against  any group that is targeted because of their identity.”

There are various organizations present on campus that educate students about sexual violence. The Dean of Students’ Violence Prevention Program, B.E.A.R. and the Women’s Center all provide information on sexual assault awareness. In fact, an entire month of the year has been devoted to fighting sexual assault all across America.

Sexual Enjoyment in British Romanticism

Erin Fenner

David Sigler, an assistant professer of English at the Unviersity of Idaho, spoke about sexuality and British Romaticism for the Women’s Center Brown Bag this Wednesday. He looked at how authors such as Lord Byron, Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft wrote about sexuality and enjoyment.

Sigler said that views of sexuality have changed since the 18^th century in a surprising way. He said that modern sexuality is more restrictive.

“It’s much more closed off than it has been historically,” Sigler said.

It isn’t that people in the 18th century were particularly open-minded, but that the construct of gender and sexuality were different. Sigler said that today we focus mostly on orientation – who we are sleeping with.

“(Today) we tend to categorize sexuality as your sexual partner” Sigler said.

Spotlight: Heather Shea Gasser

Director of the UI Women’s Center, Heather Shea Gasser. Photo by Kristen Carey

Kristen Carey

Heather Shea Gasser is one of those faces you see everywhere on campus.  The Director of the University of Idaho’s Women’s Center seems to always be buzzing from one campus event to another: always well-equipped with a smile on her face. I have known her personally through not only the Women’s Center but also her role as faculty advisor for Feminist Alliance.  I got the opportunity to sit down with her and ask her a few questions about the Women’s Center.

I asked Gasser to supply me with a brief history of the University of Idaho’s Women Center.  What I assumed was going to be the usual “The Center was founded in the year of blank by someone by the name of blank”  ended up being a captivating anecdote about civil rights.

Gasser said that a group called the Women’s Caucus had to meet in secrecy, and that the university President advised them that legal action was the only way to establish such a group on campus.  The group took his advice and served the university with a lawsuit.  Instead of going to court, the university and the group successfully negotiated, and the University of Idaho Women’s Center was established on March 8, 1974, which happens to be International Women’s Day.

Gasser’s full history of the Women’s Center and the terms of the agreement: