Grey Weinstein (they/he) The COVID-19 pandemic has turned everyone’s life upside down, but it is hitting previously-marginalized communities especially hard. Across the United States, coronavirus is making our country’s shortcomings more visible. Gaps in healthcare infrastructure, which have long existed, have been brought to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness, as more and more people die from the unavailability of COVID-19 treatment.
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5/23/2020 1 Comment Blood Battles: Amidst COVID-19, the Fight Over Homophobic Blood Donation Policies Continue, at the University of Michigan and NationwideWilla Hart (she/her)As one of the presidents of Blood Battle, each October I dread the date our first mass email goes out to the UMich student body. Blood Battle is a yearly competition between UMich and OSU which challenges each school to collect more blood donations in November, and our mass emails are crucial to get the word out about the competition. We often see a surge in donor sign-ups shortly after the emails go live. Unfortunately, we also see a surge of angry messages in our inbox from LGBTQIA+ students who are upset that the University of Michigan supports blood donation.
3/5/2020 1 Comment A Home for Homos: Two Students Put the “Grind” in “Grindr” Working to Create Campus’s First Gay Fraternity
In early January of the new decade, two ambitious students embarked on a journey that would hopefully change this campus forever. We, Tyler Kramer (2022) and Conner Chinavare (2023), decided that they would start the University of Michigan’s first gay fraternity. We both wanted a place in Greek life where we (and others like us) felt welcome and safe, and we believed this to be the best way. Although the group is still in its beginning interest group phase, we hope to achieve the title of Provisional Chapter by April 2020.
2/17/2020 0 Comments A Note From MBLGTACC 2020: To Those Stuck at the Intersection of Identity and HealthDyanna Bateman (she/her) Even on a LGBTQ+ friendly campus in Ann Arbor that has many queer students and some gay organizations, there’s nothing quite like being in a building with hundreds of queer students from all over the Midwest and beyond. MBLGTACC is the annual student-run Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Ally College Conference hosted at various colleges around the Midwest. I attended MBLGTACC 2020 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI with the Spectrum Center and a group of 15 other delegates. Conferences are exciting, and I highly recommend MBLGTACC as means to educate yourself about queer communities that you are not a part of and to connect with those that share some or all of your identities, but I think it is important to discuss mental health and accessibility while in a conference and/or queer conference environment.
2/15/2020 1 Comment A Green Light on Positive Change: Policy Helps Trans People to Change Sex on Driver’s LicensesAdrian Beyer (he/him) Changing one’s sex marker on a driver’s license once involved hours of legal research, doctor’s appointments, paperwork, and the humiliating experience of working with often judgmental government officials. Now, these struggles been significantly alleviated with a new Michigan law. This new legislation enables residents to change one’s sex marker on a driver’s license with a single form and all of nine dollars. In an exciting development for the transgender community, Michigan residents can now update their sex marker at the Secretary of State with comparative ease.
2/15/2020 0 Comments EnginTalks - Gender Identity Monologues: Michigan Students Share Their Experiences with GenderOliver Stevens (he/him) On December 10, in the basement of the Duderstadt Library, the College of Engineering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Student Advisory Board hosted EnginTalks: Gender Identity Monologues. The event featured four monologues focused on aspects of gender identity from both students and professors interspersed in a presentation by Spectrum Center president Will Sherry.
2/15/2020 0 Comments Supreme Court to Rule on LGBT Rights: Gay and Transgender Plaintiffs Advocate for ProtectionsJames Gibbons (he/him) Three huge cases are hitting the high court this month that threaten to demolish our Title VII protections. Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda and Bostock v. Clayton County concern the legal rights employers have to fire someone over their sexual orientation, while R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is about the unjustified termination of a trans woman. The plaintiffs in all three cases argue that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- which bars discrimination against employees based on sex, race, color, national origin and religion -- also protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The employers cite religious reasons for the firings, as well as arguing that the text of Title VII does not explicitly include protections for LGBTQ+ employees.
2/14/2020 1 Comment Preachers and ProtestStephanie Sorter (she/her) The first few weeks of September are unlike any other time of the year. They are a magical, blissful period where students are simply happy to be back on campus before the full brunt of all their classes has started to set in. Days are filled with meeting up with friends, getting lost between buildings, and promising yourself that this will finally be the year you get off that random club’s email list. Campus is filled with hammock enthusiasts and preachers alike as they scramble to make the most out of the diag before the weather goes bad. Some days it feels you can barely go ten feet without tripping over one, whether peacefully cocooned between trees or shouting slurs at the top of their lungs. This last bit, of course, is regarding the infamous diag preachers. While I am sure homophobic hammock users exist, I have yet to meet one.
2/14/2020 0 Comments To Impeach or Not to Impeach: Looking at the Trump Dilemma Through a Rainbow LensJames Gibbons (he/him) Donald Trump may finally be on his way out. After an unidentified CIA whistleblower shed light on Trump’s abuse of power, Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry against the president on September 24. The House of Representatives will vote on articles of impeachment to send the case to Senate for trial. So far, Trump has been accused of promising a meeting and military aid to Ukrainian President Zolodymyr Zelensky in a quid pro quo exchange for a political investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country. Although previous investigations have shown no wrongdoing on the part of Joe or Hunter Biden, Trump has attempted to use his position to dredge up dirt against a potential political opponent in the 2020 election.
2/12/2020 1 Comment LGBTQ+ Health and Wellness Week: The Spectrum Center Gets Creative with Self CareOliver Stevens (he/him) From February 3 – 8, the Spectrum Center hosted the 2020 LGBTQ+ Health and Wellness Week. The week featured several events of different varieties. The events steered clear of the image of a cliché wellness week; there weren’t any workshops on how to make stress balls, or on the importance of self care without defining what that means beyond the surface-level. Instead, the organizers have realized the importance of acknowledging the wider stresses and trauma overlying the community, and the specificity of the issues for people of LGBTQ+ identities. Along with this comes an understanding of the necessity of activism against the overlying oppression on the community as a whole. These events did a great job balancing the amount of complexity that goes into health and wellness for people of LGBTQ+ identities while being interesting and supportive.
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