MBLGTACC Day 1:
So, today was pretty epic. I went to a workshop and it was pretty cool. We talked about how we identify and what society tells us is acceptable vs. non-acceptable. We also discussed how we are labeled into boxes and these boxes then lead us to make stereotypes about people to whom we don’t really know. It was really insightful. After that, we made the venture on a hugely packed bus back to our hotel to eat dinner. After dinner, we went back to Iowa for the keynote speaker and Andrea Gibson (WHO I LOVE!) and we got to listen to her.
The Keynote speaker was a man that was a preacher and gay and an activist. He also told our whole conference that he had AIDS, something he had never told anyone at a keynote before. Which was pretty great. He was kind of inspirational and had a few great quotes. He gave me a few great quotes and I really liked him.
As for Andrea, my love for her goes so deep that I would love anything and everything that she did. Which she did some pretty great stuff and I loved it way too much. I almost lost it a few times. She was such a powerful speaker and she just commanded attention no matter what she was doing.
Tomorrow will be all about the events that I go to along with the Drag Show and Dance. It runs pretty late which means I might not get to update that tomorrow. I cannot wait.
MBLGTACC Day 2:
Okay, well Day 2 isn’t officially over but I feel like I have to update you because I am going to a dance tonight and I wont be home until 2 am. So, I am going to post.
I went to several conferences today after being crammed onto a bus and arriving late. I went to a politics one and we learned about networking. It was really informative and I learned a lot. It was pretty great. I met some cute boys from Nebraska which seemed to have a shit ton of people come to this thing. It was pretty great. We learned about politics and pretty much what you need to do to influence change. The second presentation I went to was about language as a social construction. While I didn’t agree on some of their points, it was pretty informative. I think that phrases like “That’s so gay” need to be removed from our common language. The presenters were talking about understand the person’s definition of the word and why they think about it like that. I mean, I think that it’s valid to find out why they think that/what they have defined that as but I also think that it’s important to remind people that we wont accept those words and they can be hurtful and hateful.
The last meeting was pretty insightful. It was about Speaker’s Panels and just creating them. It was pretty epic. I learned a lot and I think that I can take a lot back to my school. There isn’t much to write about that because I already know so much about it which is good.
Day 2: Cont. & Day 3
Day 2: Cont.
So left off on the workshops and the dance; which was amazing. Basically it was drag show and Pandora Boxx was hosting it. She is from RuPaul’s Drag
race. If you don’t know what that is, go look it up on Logotv.com. It’s kind of like America’s Next Top Model but for Drag Queens. They did several performances that lasted from 10 pm to around 12 am. Then we danced from 12 until 2am. Needless to say, it was a very long night after a day with very little sleep. I had a lot of fun and I danced with my best friend from high school who goes to a different college. It was truly wonderful.
Day 3
I went to two workshops today. The first one was being “out” at
work. I realize that some people of the straight cisgendered community might not understand some of my lingo. Basically being “out” means letting everyone you know your orientation, identity, or expression at work. That can encompass anything from the people that you like to sleep with, to whom you like to engage in relationships with, and how you dress. “Cisgendered” means that your anatomy and the parts you were born with are what you feel comfortable with. For men it’s a penis and testes and for women it’s breasts and a vagina.
A note to everyone reading this: JUST BECAUSE YOU SAY YOU ARE A MAN OR A WOMAN; IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE TO HAVE EITHER OF THESE ANATOMICAL PARTS. Some men have vaginas and some women have penises. This a direct commentary to our gender binary and our social construct of how we view “men” and “women.” The reason I put those two in quotes is because not everyone identifies as being a part of the gender binary. Back to the topic, this whole workshop was about what can happen if you are out at work. For many people, their company can immediately terminate them for being part of the Queer community. For other companies, they can easily disguise it. I really liked the workshop although I think the male-presenting person presenting it could have used a little more work and his
disability played a big role in his presentation abilities. Which is neither good nor bad, I just think it was.
The second workshop that I went to, it was about the *Trans community and gender roles. It showed us how gender roles and how gender archetypes played into how we are socialized as people. It was very interesting and honestly my favorite of the whole conference. I mean, I loved the first workshop that I went to but this one speaks to my heart with gender and gender roles. I love it so much.
Notes: I guess I learned a lot more about the whole community. I would say the biggest thing that I learned was to ask pronoun preference and use more inclusive pronouns as in: zed, sir, her, they, them, and themselves. Also, never assume anything of anyone and don’t attempt to put people in boxes because even though we like to do that, that leads to negative stereotypes very quickly. Also, just because someone identifies a certain way, that doesn’t give you license to determine what you think their identity means. That’s for them to decide no matter how different from how you would think it is. That’s the beautiful part about our world. We are all different. If you have any questions please ask!
