LGBTQ Activism

Cornell College ASB is a program that helps students at Cornell College travel around the country and take part in service-learning opportunities. This year ASB Chicago is focusing on LGBTQ Activism. We're spending our week working with nonprofits throughout the Chicagoland area and learning more about the different roles activism can and has taken. This tumblr exists to help show other's what we're learning & apply activism in a social media context. We'll be using this tumblr as a personal journal for trip members and making posts as a group about the important things we are learning and doing.

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"That's So Gay!"

After our visit, Tracy Baim from the Windy City Times gave us a really awesome game of her own making."That's So Gay: A game of LGBTQ discovery" is an enlightening trivia game, featuring over 2400 history and pop culture questions about LGBTQ individuals. We had never heard of most of these individuals before- which just goes to show how necessary the spread and teaching of LGBTQ history is today. 

The trivia questions come in 6 categories, each corresponding to a different color of the rainbow on your team (or individual) board. As you answer questions correctly, you collect colored chips to fill up your rainbow flag. It's available on amazon! 

We've played it multiple times during our trip, and had a really fun time. Even if you aren't a trivia or history buff, you'll at least recognize some of the more current answers. My team did win a game by guessing our way to victory, but hey - everyone learned a lot.

Example Question: In what comic-book series was superhero Jean-Paul Beaubier shown marrying Kyle Jinadu, making him the first comic-book superhero to wed (in 2012)? 

A: Astonishing X-Men (#51) 

~Ani 

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Art Institute of Chicago

On Thursday, between service sites, the ASB Chicago group visited the Art Institute. I spent most of my time at Amar Kanwar's video instillation, The Lightning Testimonies, which addresses sexual violence on the Indian Subcontinent. Different stories of personal trauma, institutional violence, and resistance are simultaneously displayed on 8 different screens. I found the history of the abducted and reclaimed women (resulting from the 1947 Partition of India) and the documentary footage of women in India protesting military rape were particular striking. This exhibit is discomforting and overwhelming both in content and presentation—reflecting the situation. Highly recommended.

-- Erin

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Jared Leto receives an Oscar for portraying a trans woman while trans women receive shame and violence for being trans women. 

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Boy George: Straight musicians have more influence when advocating for gay rights

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Singer Boy George has made comments about the music industry, suggesting that straight artists are more influential when advocating for gay rights because people thing gay artists are “preaching”.

Being an ally who is not a member of the LGBT community is being an ally who has a higher chance of being heard in the world. Speak up and speak out and let people know that you stand with, not for, the LGBT community.

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On Tuesday afternoon, we took a trip to the National Immigrant Justice Center, NIJC, to discuss what type of research we would help them with, but before we received our assignment we got some background information on the group. The NIJC works with immigrants who are seeking asylum in the US from their country because of either being attacked because of their sexuality, being stranded because of their sexuality, or fear of the above. The NIJC offers advice and pro bono work to LGBT individuals and couples who are trying to stay in the US to escape their home country where they could be harmed either by the government or by the people who the government turn a blind eye to.

The NIJC asked us to update their information about countries in which they work. In order to fully defend a person in court, the NIJC needs to show the judge that if the person was to return to their home country, they would face physical violence. In order to do so, they need to make sure that their information about the countries are up-to-date and accurate and so our job is to find articles from a few countries involving LGBT peoples and laws that either show support or objection towards the LGBT community. We're all super excited to start doing research and I think it will be pretty amazing to help out with such an amazing program.

- Tevin

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On Monday night as part of our evening ASB reflection our group started discussing the distinction of sex, gender, and sexuality and the challenges of identity claims. While conceptually distinct, in contemporary American society sex and gender are generally assumed to be and are treated as indistinguishable. While we might conceptually distinguish sex as a term used to indicate physical differences from gender as reflective of masculine/feminine self-identification, in mainstream interactions it is typically assumed that male bodied individuals are men and female-bodied individuals are women. It is also assumed that men are/should be masculine and females are/should be feminine. This creates challenges for trangendered individuals whose birth assigned sex, gender presentations, and identities are not congruent, as well as cisgendered individuals whose are not normatively masculine or feminine. Our mainstream notion of dichotomous stability also affect those who do not fit our dichotomous models of sexuality. Contemporary gendered models of sexuality presume that one's sexual orientation is based on the sex/gender object choice. Further this also is presumed to be static and dichotomous—which means we are expected to have consistent and congruent fantasies, attractions, romantic affiliations, experiences. This limits our ability to be fluid in gender or sexuality. Sexual experiences and relationships which do not fit our presumed trajectory or which are not rooted in gender are incomprehensible and de-legitimized. Based on the various people we've talked to with the LGBT organizations we are meeting with, we've come to realize that not everyone has the same perspectives and expereinces. In order to understand, communicate, and accept the diversity of gendered and sexual experience we need to clarify our terms, listen to each other, and be open to new possibilities.  

-Erin

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The Center On Halsted

For our first day of service we took a trip to go visit the Center On Halsted, and it was absolutely amazing! Our guide, Rarrie, was very helpful and informative and gave us a tour of the entire building. There are so many wonderful services they provide to the LGBTQ community: youth services, childcare, senior services, giving out meals, health services particularly hiv/aids testing, mental health services and a variety of classes like yoga or cooking as well! The building itself was quite impressive in size and just decor and usefulness of each space. Just when you think they couldn’t possibly fit anything else in this building we went up to the third floor and saw that they have a whole gym too! I was so amazed by all the great work they do for the LGBTQ community and it was really inspiring to hear their story of how they came to be and how greatly they are supported by the community, donors, and especially all their wonderful volunteers. I really wish we could have volunteered with them but unfortunately you have to be 22. Still I felt like we learned a lot and it was great to learn more about them!

--Emily

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Created by The Legacy Project, a nonprofit organization operating in Chicago, The Legacy Walk  is the world's only outdoor museum walk created to educated the youth as well as celebrate LGBTQ History. It currently features over a dozen rainbow pylons with plaques commemorating members of the LGBTQ community who have made a significant impact in a wide variety of fields: ranging from art and literature to science and social justice.

Yesterday, we had the privilege of taking the guided tour from co-founder and Executive Director of the Legacy Project, along this half mile of North Halsted. It was eye opening to see how many people I've learned about, even in a college setting, without ever being told they're part of the LGBTQ community (such as Jane Adams). While this exhibit does raise the question of how do we talk about history without making identities static, it's still very important that representation of the LGBTQ community is reinstated into our textbook histories. 

-- Janet

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Last night we had a discussion about what it means to be an effective ally in preparation for starting our week of service this morning. Whether or not individuals in the group are a part of the LGBTQ community, we realize that as a group we're coming into other peoples spaces, making us allies. Today is going to be all about listening: we're spending our day with the Center on Halsted and our night working with Devlin Marcotte learning about internet activism. 

We spent last night playing a quick LGBT bingo game and realized all of our trip members have different expertise, so we can turn to each other this week when we're confused. But, probably more importantly, we learned how important it is to be honest when we don't  know something. We're here to learn from the experts. We spent a long time talking about how important it is to call out others who are privileged, but to shut up and listen to others while we're here. We aren't here to be saviors, pat ourselves on the back, or make it about us. We're here to learn and help in any way we're needed.

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We made it!

We fought off Chicago traffic, a couple wrong turns from our fearless leaders, and some mishaps with our Ventra passes (Ventra, what even are you?) but we're safe, sound and settled in!

Trip members Marissa, Janet, and Rebecca unwind and chat about everything from the best Chicago bagel joints, siracha, and race politics before heading to bed.

We'll start exploring the city and focus on group bonding tomorrow before diving into service on Monday!

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Seems fitting- Chicago bound in less than an hour!

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bathrooms: you’re doing them right.

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Pre-Trip Jitters

ASB Chicago had our last meeting before heading off campus to start our trip tomorrow. Everybody is so excited to start exploring Chicago and get our service on! We have a really unique and diverse group and everybody has a different background with different expertise to bring.

Get to know our trip members before we start posting about all the exciting work we're doing!

Rebecca: One of the trip co-leaders, a senior designing a bachelor of special studies in Youth, Gender, & Social Justice. Rebecca is most excited to learn about the exciting social justice, nonprofit community in Chicago, and the different approaches all of the different groups take towards activism. 

Josh: Trip co-leader, a senior majoring in Bio-chemistry and minoring in Civic Engagement. Josh is most excited to work with a group of students and further discover what activism & advocacy can be in the 21st century. 

Emily: A sophomore Computer Science major with a double minor in Math and Spanish. Emily is most excited to learn new information and become a better activist. 

Ani: A Junior Bio-chem and Theatre double major. Ani is really excited to meet all of the activists we’re going to talk to. She's especially looking forward to working with the Chicago Women’s Health Center.

Janet: A sophomore Secondary Education & English double major. She's excited to learn more about her hometown from the standpoint of LGBTQ activism.

Marissa:  A sophomore Psychology and Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies double major with a Civic Engagement Minor. Marissa is excited to learn more about the issues that the LGBTQ community faces & how they’re combated. 

Tevin:  A senior Music major and psychology minor. Tevin is excited to be able to participate in LGBTQ activism & be able to gain knowledge in the field.

Erin: Our faculty adviser is a professor of sociology and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. Erin is most excited to explore social media & use it for activist purposes.