Project Progress Report 1

So far, I have attended three regular meetings of the Clemson Gay Straight Alliance and one executive board meeting. I also spent some time at the table the club set up on the library bridge for coming out day.

Each meeting was organized differently. At the first one, a speaker was presenting her research on religious affiliation and attitudes toward homosexuality. The group engaged in a lively discussion as she presented her findings, some contributing their own experiences with religion. One young man talked about the Southern Baptist Church with which he was very involved. When he came out, the church community ostracized him, so that he was forced to leave. At the end of the talk, the executive board brought up some business manners. One member, "Max," who is new to the group this year, wanted the position of Diversity Liaison. But there was much confusion of what the position entailed. It is not in the Constitution and was created last year specifically for a graduate student who was interning in the Gantt Intercultural Center. Her job was to be the messenger between Gantt and CGSA. This year, none of the members work in the Intercultural Center. Max said that he wanted to make sure the organization was politically involved, but this didn't seem to be the job of the diversity liaison. After some arguing, in which it seemed that the majority of the members were confused, it was put to a vote and Matt was elected chief diversity officer. At the end of the meeting, some of us went to the front of the room to have our picture taken. These pictures were later mailed to all the faculty and staff who had gone through safe zone training. Some people chose not to be in the picture. We went through several different shots before the picture was pronounced good enough.

At the executive board meeting on Friday, the incident was brought up. The officers felt that the position of diversity liaison had not been explained correctly. They also seemed upset with the way some members who were not officers had taken over the voting process. Several of them thought it would have been better to eliminate the position of diversity liaison and allow Max to be a political chair. In this meeting, they also talked about plans for National Coming Out Week. Normally, it is just a day, but they chose to extend it to a week this year because the actual day fell on a Saturday. The main activity was manning a table on the library bridge all week with information about coming out and resources for the LGBT community. There was also an art exhibit with works by CGSA members in the Hendrix Center and a display of the bios of famous LGBT people in the library. The group's social chair, Bob, expressed disappointment at not being included in the committees for planning Coming Out Week and Winter Formal. He felt that others were horning in on his position. He had been so busy with other activities that he hadn't attended any meetings lately, so other people were taking initiative. This conflict was resolved by allowing Bob to be a contact person on all the committees. At the executive board meeting, the group also talked about revising the Constitution. When it was written, the organization established co-presidents, one male and one female. This was done because there was a lot of friction at the time between men and women and it was seen as a peacekeeping gesture. However, the members of the group seem to get along much better now, so the Constitution was revised to establish a president and vice-president. They also introduced procedures for the impeachment and resignation of executive officers.

I spent some time at the table during Coming Out Week. I noticed a significant change. Last year, students were reluctant to man the table. This year, there always seemed to be four or five people hanging out there. In order to get people to visit the table, the group offered free candy. Many people took advantage of this, but only a few took some handouts. Some asked questions about the group and then seemed embarrassed when they learned what it was. Most of the members manning the table sat and waited for people to approach them. But one young woman, "Ashley," was very outspoken. She yelled at all the passersby, offering them free candy. She also tried to convince others that the group could also be for straight people. At one point, she asked me if I was straight. The question caught me off-guard, but I answered "no." Ashley did manage to get more people to get candy, but she also made some people uncomfortable. There was some discussion of the banner placed in front of the table. We had two available, one with a tiger in rainbow colors and one with text on it about Coming Out Day. Some people, including me, preferred the tiger, but others thought it was scary.

That week's meeting, CGSA provided pizza and soda. They had advertized the meeting as a game night, so I was looking forward to playing board games. I was somewhat disappointed that it didn't happen. Instead, we gathered in a big circle for an icebreaker in which we said our names and acted out our favorite activity. Since there were so many of us, this took a long time. Then, we were asked to share coming out stories. Several people did. Most of them had had fairly positive experiences, but a few told stories of rejection by close friends and/or family members. Several people were not yet out to their parents. At this meeting, I also got to see the picture we had taken. It came out well. Most of us were smiling. I noticed that someone had photoshoped the banner with the rainbow tiger into the background.

At the most recent meeting, Max, the new diversity liaison, shared some articles from the Journal of Homosexuality. I noticed that all the articles were about gay men. Much research has been done on men, but there doesn't seem to be much information on women. After that, the executive members asked for feedback on Coming Out Week. Most of it was positive. Then they talked about winter formal. After some debate, the theme of a masked ball was picked. Last, we discussed fundraisers such as bake sales and selling the pictures we had taken. The president reminded us to pay our dues. After the meeting, some people remained to join the Winter Formal committee. I stayed to pay dues and then ended up joining the committee. I didn't really want to, but I felt obligated since I was depending on some of the members for a ride home.

That night, we didn't go directly home. Instead, we stopped at Monterrey's for dinner. We discussed sexuality while we were there. Of the six of us, three were bisexual, one was straight, one was gay, and one was transgendered. "Jody," is in the process of changing from a male to a female. She just started estrogen therapy and always dresses like a woman and wears make-up. She plans to have surgery later to make the transformation complete. Jody sees herself as a woman and prefers for others to refer to her that way. In fact, she sees herself as a straight woman. When I said something about her not being straight, I think I offended her a little. We talked about the process of a sex-change operation and about would and would not change. Jody said that her hips will remain narrow and that her breasts will probably not develop very much. She also expressed sorrow at not being able to have biological children, as she will not have ovaries or a uterus. This conversation at dinner made me think a lot. I thought about how difficult it must be to be transgendered and how much someone must want to change to undergo a sex change operation. I also thought about the ambiguity in CGSA. Although some members' sexuality is easy to determine, there are others we can't be sure about. I am one of the people that confuses others, but I also get confused myself. When I was hanging out in Edgars Underground, a girl I recognized from CGSA came over to talk to me. I wasn't sure whether she was just being friendly or flirting with me. In an organization like CGSA it can be difficult to tell, and I feel that it would be rude to ask someone. This ambiguity about gender and sexual orientation is something I would like to follow up. In a way, it makes it awkward for members to interact with each other until they are sure of each other's status.