Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
7-14-2011
Abstract
Kevin Cruz shares his reflections and experiences from going to Campus Pride. Reflecting on Campus Pride; Kevin Cruz; Campus Pride for me was a brief glance into a wonderful community of respect and acceptance for one another; This lovely camp brought together many student leaders from colleges across the nation and from all different backgrounds; Not only were there student leaders but supportive faculty, inspiring speakers, and fabulous entertainers; Speakers such as Robyn Ochs who is a professional speaker and educator and lives close by in Boston; She was both a faculty member and a special speaker who presented a lovely program of sexuality on a spectrum; Bebe Zahara Benet (aka Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa), from nyc, was our entertainment one night, yet a story of inspiration and wisdom; She wowwed us with her performance and then stopped us dead in our tracks with her heart-warming journey to become the person Kudi is today; Other speakers included Mara Keisling who founded the National Center for Transgender Equality; Shane Windmeyer, director of Campus Pride and lead author on gay campus issues; All of these speakers would be more than happy to come to campus and would bring a wonderful perspective to our URI community; Not only were there fantastic speakers, there were amazing programs and ice breakers that help me generate ideas and learn new concepts; One of the exercises was allowing the students to come to a consensus about the bathroom situations; The exercise was geared towards getting the dialogue started around gender neutral bathrooms; It was a great discussion because it was not hypothetical, but actually being implemented in the time that we stayed there; But that was only if the group came to a consensus to allow for gender neutral bathrooms to exist; Overall, my group chose gender neutral bathrooms and it enriched everyone’s understanding of gender neutral bathrooms in how they work and how it is possible; Not only that but I was able to practice gender neutral pronouns while I was there which gave me the idea to implement such practices back on campus; Overall Campus Pride really gave me more than I expected and gave me an inside look to the future. I would recommend allowing people to continue to go to campus pride because it keeps up our ties with campus pride; which is a great source to have; Not only that but for new students it creates so much growth and understanding which comes with being in that community; Also, it helps to make connections with other students across the nation and learn of amazing speakers to invite to our campus. GLBT Center staff