April 30, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
April 30, 2009
This Saturday evening (May 2) at 9 PM in Douglas Hall, we are going to be showing the
movie Milk. Feel free to bring your friends.
Friday, May 8 is the Intercultural Center potluck. This will be at Wildwood park at 4:30
PM. All of you are highly encouraged to be there (free food!). Coalition is responsible
for bringing desserts. So far, we have Pedro making pudding, me making cookies, and
Lissa and Anna making other desserts. If you would like to make or bring something, that
would be wonderful as well.
The trip to the Metropolitan Community Church in the Tri-Cities has been postponed to
next weekend. The service begins at 10:30 on Sunday (May 10), so we will be leaving from
Whitman at 9:15. Please let me know if you would like to attend (all are welcome) and
whether or not you have a car.
Today was our last meeting, so I'm going to take this opportunity to thank you all for
your hard work and commitment this year. We really accomplished a lot this year, which
is awesome. You all rock!
Hope to see you at these upcoming events! :)
April 23, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
April 23, 2009
We discussed leadership for next semester, and we decided that, for now, Mehera, Emma,
and Liam will continue as officers. We will hold official elections at the beginning of
next semester.
Same-Sex Hand-Holding Day is tomorrow. Make sure to get your friends involved. The
facebook event is here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=90550839594
Lissa is working on getting our trip to the MCC organized. We will be going on May 3.
Stay tuned for more updates on this.
May 8 is the Intercultural Center Potluck. You are all encouraged to attend - it will be
a lot of fun and good food. It will be held at Wildwood Park, and Coalition is
responsible for bringing desserts. We may be getting together at some point to bake,
more info on that later.
We are hoping to have an in-club screening of Milk sometime before the end of the year.
Gia is working on obtaining a copy of the movie.
Next week's meeting will be on Thursday, April 30, at 5 PM in Reid G02.
April 16, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
April 16, 2009
Tomorrow is the Day of Silence, followed by the Night of Noise at 8 PM. We will be meeting outside of Reid and moving into Reid 207. There will be food, music, and discussions (and balloons, at Pedro's request). Everyone is welcome.
Saturday from 12-3 on the Reid Side Lawn is the Imagine Celebration. We have enough people to be at our booth, but it would be great if you could stop by. Our booth will have face painting, and other clubs' booths will have other fun activities. Also, there will be a Taiko drumming band, some student performers, and Taco Trucks.
We're working on getting advertisements up for same-sex hand holding day. We still have a couple shirts left, so let me know if you want one.
April 9, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
April 9, 2009
Today we created shirts for Same-Sex Hand Holding Day. We decorated plenty of extras, so
if anyone wants one, please let me know. We have 2 smalls, 3 mediums, and 1 large left
(men's sizes). The cost is $5, which covers the cost of the shirt itself, as well as the
materials used to paint it. They came out really nicely. So please let me know if you'd
like one.
This coming Monday, April 13, Ellis, a folk-rock musician, will be singing in Maxey
Auditorium at 7:30 PM. This is a benefit concert for Triple Point, the local LGBT youth
group, and is being sponsored by PFLAG and GLBTQ. The cost is $5 with a student ID. The
link to the Facebook event is below:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=88700524847&ref=ts
Next Thursday, there is going to be a candlelight vigil for the Day of Silence on 1st and
Main at 5:00 PM. This is being organized by the Children's Home Society, through which
Triple Point is run. In order to allow people the opportunity to attend, we will be
pushing back our meeting time next week to 7 PM. If anybody would like to walk over to
the vigil as a group, we will be meeting outside of Reid at 4:45 on Thursday.
The Day of Silence is on Friday, April 17. The idea is to be silent all day (or for as
much of the day as you can) in order to symbolically represent LGBT people who are
silenced every day. We will be passing out speaking cards at the meeting next Thursday.
If you would like speaking cards and cannot make it to the meeting, please let me know,
or print them off from this link:
http://www.dayofsilence.org/downloads/dos_speaking_card_09.pdf
That evening we will be having a Night of Noise. We will meet outside of Reid at 8 PM to
break the silence (lots of yelling!) and then we will move inside to Reid 207 to discuss
the day. Snacks will be provided.
April 18th is the Imagine Celebration, which is an event put on by the Intercultural
Center. All of the diversity clubs will have booths there, and there will also be bands,
dancers, and a Taiko drumming group. It will be on the Reid Side Lawn from 12-3. A lot
of community members will be there, as will a number of prospective students (it's the
same day as Admitted Students Day). At our booth, we are going to have information about
our club, as well as do face painting (simple stuff). We are looking for people to be at
the booth any time between 12 and 3. Even if you can be there for only an hour, that
would be wonderful. Email me ASAP if you are available any time between 12 and 3 on the
18th.
Next week's meeting will be on Thursday, April 16 at 7 PM.
April 2, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
April 2, 2009
I'm sure you're tired of seeing these emails by now, but Dragfest is tonight (Friday) at
10 PM. Be there. It'll be awesome.
Friday, April 17 is the Day of Silence. We will be distributing speaking cards from
GLSEN closer to the event. We will be having a Night of Noise event that evening at 8.
It will start outside of Reid, at which point we will break the silence, and then move
inside to have snacks and discuss the day. We will be inviting members of Triple Point
to join us at this event.
April 24th will be same sex hand holding day. At one of our meetings (most likely April
16), we will be decorating shirts to wear that week/day. We will also be doing mass
advertising for this so that more than just a handful of people participate.
On May 3, we will be taking a field trip to the Metropolitan Community Church in the
Tri-Cities. This church has a specific outreach to LGBT families and communities. There
will be more details on this in the coming weeks.
If you want to help decorate for Dragfest, come to the Reid Ballroom at 8 PM. Our
decorations are simple this year (nobody really pays attention to them anyways), so it
shouldn't take long to set up.
March 12, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
March 12, 2009
On Tuesday, March 31, Brian Griffith, a drag queen from the Tri-Cities, will be coming to
talk about his experiences as a drag queen, etc. He may also be giving a drag makeup
workshop. We are still working out the details for this. It will be in the Lyman main
lounge, time TBA.
On Thursday, April 2, Professor Croot from the theater department will be speaking about
the history of drag. This will be at 7 PM in the Jewett main lounge.
Dragfest is Friday, April 3. We will be setting up starting at 8 PM, and the dance
begins at 10. Make sure to be telling your friends about this (and all the events).
On April 23, we will be having Same-Sex Hand Holding Day. We are thinking about making
t-shirts for this event using spray paint and plain white shirts. Pretty much all this
event will entail is a lot of advertising during the week before, so that a noticeable
number of people participate.
Day of Silence is on April 17. Sometime in the week leading up to the 17th, we may be
doing something with Triple Point. We are waiting to hear back from them regarding what
they would like us to help with. Also, on the evening of the 17th, we will be having a
Night of Noise to conclude the Day of Silence. At that event, we can talk about our
experiences that day, hang out and eat food, etc.
It was suggested that we take a field trip to the Metropolitan Community Church in the
Tri-Cities sometime after spring break. Watch for more info on this later.
The next meeting will be on April 2 at 5 PM in Reid G02. At that meeting we will be
starting to prepare the decorations for Dragfest.
Have a good spring break!
March 5, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
March 5, 2009
Dragfest will be on April 3rd.
-On April 2nd at 7 PM, Professor Croot will be speaking about the history of drag. This
will most likely be in the Jewett main lounge, but we will have more info on that soon.
-On the day of April 3, it was suggested that we have a "drag day," where people spend
the whole day in drag. This would be intended to serve as a way for people to become
more aware of the ways in which gender is performed in everyday life, as well as to be a
form of advertisement for the dance that evening.
-We may potentially be having a make-up workshop and discussion sometime during the week
preceding Dragfest. More info on that to come.
The Dessert Social will be this Saturday at the MECCA at 4 PM. This will be an
opportunity for people to come together and share their stories in an informal manner.
There will be fondue, brownies, and cookies. All are welcome.
Same-Sex Hand Holding Day will be on April 23. We talked about maybe making t-shirts and
having some sort of discussion-type thing in conjunction with it. We are going to hold
off on planning for this event until after spring break.
Day of Silence is on April 17. We're also holding off on the planning for this until
later, but we thought about having a Night of Noise in the evening after the DoS. We
also might do something with Triple Point for this event.
Our next meeting will be on March 12 at 5 PM.
February 26, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
February 26, 2009
First we discussed advertising ideas for Dragfest. Below are the ideas we came up with and who is responsible for executing them:
-chalking (Emma & Ryan)
-fliers and table toppers (Liam)
-spamming listserves (Emma & Mehera)
-posters (Evan)
-facebook group (Liam)
Next we discussed the other events we are going to have the week leading up to Dragfest.
-make-up session and discussion (currently working on finding someone to facilitate this)
-lecture about drag and gender performance (potentially given by Prof. Croot, more details later)
We are going to be having a dessert social on Saturday, March 7, sometime in the afternoon (more details TBA). This will be a time for club members to get together in a less formal environment and discuss things (we will have discussion questions to provide a loose structure to the discussion). There will potentially be fondue. Below are the things people signed up to do:
-figure out the fondue situation (Liz, Emma, & Khoa)
-create discussion questions (Pedro, Susanna, & Kristen)
Our film series will hopefully be starting next Thursday in Kimball at 8 PM. We will be showing "If These Walls Could Talk 2." The film will be open to all of campus and the community. Afterwards, we will be having snacks and a brief discussion about the movie.
-food (Mehera, Laura, & Khoa)
-advertising (Seth)
We have decided to postpone the panel about LGBT parents until next semester in order to make it a quality event and not just have it be haphazardly thrown together at the last minute. We will begin planning for this at the end of this semester.
Other events we have coming up in April will be Day of Silence (April 17) and Same-Sex Hand Holding Day.
February 19, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
February 19, 2009
First we discussed the film series. We have decided to show three movies, and we're
working on filling out the paperwork and picking/pre-screening movies. We're going to
show the movies in Kimball on Thursday nights at 8, hopefully starting this coming
Thursday. We are going to follow up each movie with a brief discussion and snacks.
An idea was brought up about having a same-sex parenting panel sometime this semester.
For that, we would try to get several different speakers, potentially an LGBT-identified
person who is raising or has raised kids, a person who has parents who are
LGBT-identified, and/or someone from an adoption agency.
Dragfest will be on April 3 from 10 PM to 1 AM. The theme is going to be rock
stars/musicians. We will be setting up starting at 8 PM that evening. Mark this on your
calendar.
We want to have some events the week leading up to Dragfest that would be educational, to
try to avoid having the event be simply a dance where trans people are set up as the
funny "other" to pretend to be for a day. However, most people who were at the meeting
have not been around very long here at Whitman and so don't know what sorts of things
have been done in years past that may have been effective. Some ideas offered at the
meeting included having a speaker or a panel, but we found ourselves a little stuck when
we tried to figure out who we might have as a speaker or panelists. So, if you have any
awesome ideas, either things that have been done in the past or something you just
thought of off the top of your head, please let us know.
On Saturday, March 7, we are planning to have a dessert potluck/get-together as a fun
social event for Coalition members. We are hoping to use this time to get to know each
other and extend dialogue beyond the capacity of club business. There will be more
details on this shortly.
Thanks to everyone who went to see the hate crimes exhibit or came to one of the
discussions.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday, February 26 at 5 PM in Reid G02.
February 5, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
February 5, 2009
Thanks to all who showed up to the meeting today and helped put together the things for
the hate crimes exhibit. We got a lot done.
We will be putting up the exhibit in the Olin Breezeway on Sunday. Keep an eye out for
an email about when we will be doing that, and be sure to come help us set up.
Along with the exhibit, we are planning on holding discussions to facilitate dialogue and
raise awareness of the issues of violence and discrimination towards LGBT people. The
discussions will be on Thursday, February 12 (during our regular meeting time) and
Friday, February 20. Some ideas offered for the discussion included reading poems and
stories, potentially asking a professor to speak for a few minutes, and reading
obituaries/biographies of the LGBT individuals who were murdered in 2008, and then
breaking up into small groups to discuss. We need ideas for discussion questions. If
you have any good discussion questions in mind, please email them to me or any of the
other officers.
Also, regarding the film series, we still need ideas for movies to play. If you have
ideas, email them to me or another officer. We're currently in the process of talking to
the ASWC film people about this, so we need ideas soon.
Save the date: Dragfest is going to be on April 3 from 10 PM to 1 AM.
Our next meeting will be on February 12 at 5 PM in Reid G02.
January 29, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
January 29, 2009
At this meeting, we discussed an idea for an exhibit/display that we are going to be
putting on, either in the Stevens Gallery or in the Olin Breezeway, related to LGBT
individuals who have been murdered in hate crimes in the last year. We are planning to
do this during the week of February 9. Below are some bullet points outlining what the
display will consist of:
-handprints and footprints for each individual, done in paint (on paper), with their name
and picture alongside
-footprints leading to the middle of the room
-response board that allows viewers to write responses (perhaps in response to a specific
question)
-table toppers in the dining halls with individual pictures and stories of people who
have been killed
Along with this, we are planning to have an open discussion towards the end of the week
(or weeks, depending on how long we can have it up). We will advertise for the
discussion in the exhibit itself, on the table toppers, and on fliers. Ideas for the
discussion included:
-starting with reading stories or a poem or showing a short film
-splitting up into small groups and using specific discussion questions to guide the
discussion
-we need to end with some sort of hopeful or empowering message to give this a forward,
change-focused direction, instead of simply being depressing
The next meeting will be a work party. We will finalize plans, do the hand/foot prints,
come up with discussion questions, etc.
At some point this semester, hopefully during the weeks before spring break, we are
hoping to put on a mini film series. We want to have one film a week for three weeks.
We hope to show movies that won't be too terribly depressing (Boys Don't Cry, for
instance) or too silly (such as But I'm a Cheerleader). Some middle ground would be
good, so that the movie will be entertaining but still get people to think about queer
issues. Bring ideas for movies to the next meeting.
Things to think about before the next meeting:
-movie ideas
-title for the hate crimes exhibit/display
-ideas for discussion questions
Our next meeting will be next Thursday, February 5, in Reid G02 at 5 PM. Remember, it
will be a work party and all kinds of fun, so be there and bring your friends!
January 22, 2009
Coalition Against Homophobia
January 22, 2009
Our first meeting of the semester was quite productive. First we discussed what the
mission of Coalition should be and the problems that we see at Whitman, both within the
queer community and affecting the queer community. Repeated themes were lack of
visibility and activism, as well as general ignorance of LGBT issues among the non-LGBT
population at Whitman.
Next, we discussed goals for the coming semester. Some of the goals and ideas include:
-participate in more outreach to the community (PFLAG, Triple Point, etc,)
-add some sort of an educational component to Dragfest
-create a myspace page for Coalition
-bring in a public speaker/performer
-do more advertising for events so that we become a better-known group on campus
-group bonding activities - movie and pizza, sports games, etc.
-put posters up around campus, particularly in bathrooms (where people are likely to read
them) with statistics and information about LGBT issues.
-see about submitting pieces to the Pio regarding LGBT issues
Next, we discussed club leadership for the coming semester. The co-presidents will be
Pedro and Liam, and the vice-president will be Mehera.
Our next meeting will be next Thursday at 5 PM, location TBA.