SOL: LGBTQ+ MULTICULTURAL SUPPORT NETWORK

SOL: LGBTQ+ Multicultural Support Network is a student-fee funded organization that focuses on Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) while providing support through educational programming, student advocacy, and ally building among undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and other organizations at Oregon State University.

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

This Week in Spotlight!

James Mercer Langston Hughes (a.k.a Langston Hughes) was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1st, 1902 to a school teacher. His father soon left and eventually divorced his wife soon after, traveling to Mexico and Cuba to find refuge away from the racism in early 20th century America. His ancestry is quite complex, with his paternal great grandmothers being slaves and his paternal great grandfathers being white slave owners. One could even say he was one of the first multiracial poets during the Harlem Renaissance.

Despite being allegedly closeted his own live, due to wanting to retain the support of black churches, Hughes expressed himself secretly in poems, and some in poems that were never published and were for an alleged male lover. He was also active in the desegregation of the south in the 1960’s and he did many political pieces on the matter.

After his death in 1967 due to complications in abdominal surgery for pancreatic cancer, his ashes were interred into a cosmogram in the entrance of the Arthur Schomberg Center in Harlem and his pieces are still being printed to this day.

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Our Spotlight this week is Alvin Ailey! Born on January 5th, 1931 to a single mother in Rogers, Texas, Ailey has a rough road ahead of him in terms of racism in his community. That is until his mother moved them to California in 1942 for work. Ailey soon fell in love with dance as it was taught in his school, and he soon perused it seriously in 1954, and in 1958 created the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, one of the first multiracial dance companies at the time. As being taught in both modern dance and Ballet, he mixed the two so his dancers had a modern top, meaning there was more fluidity and expression in the upper half of the body, and a ballet bottom, with pointed toes and straight legs, something that wasn’t seen really before. Alvin Ailey was closeted his whole life, dying from HIV/AIDS on December 1st, 1989 but his family was told differently as requested by Ailey to his doctor to prevent his family from being embarrassed due to the implications of the disease at the time. Despite this, Ailey was and still is considered one of the most influential dancers and choreographers in not only the Black community but in the LGBTQ+ community #alvinailey #SOLOSU #Spotlight #LGBTQ+

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Qualtrics sophisticated online survey software solutions make creating online surveys easy. Learn more about Research Suite and get a free account today.

“The Marilyn Gorski Award for Excellence, Integrity, and Outstanding Contributions to Oregon State University This award is presented annually at the OSU Lavender Celebration Ceremony to any graduating Oregon State University graduate or undergraduate student who has provided leadership and service to the OSU LGBTQQIA+ community during the years seeking their current degree. Lavender Celebration will take place this year on Thursday, June 14 from 7-9pm in The LaSells Stewart Center.”

Come and Nominate someone who you believe deserves this Award!

Nominations are due May 27th!

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Qualtrics sophisticated online survey software solutions make creating online surveys easy. Learn more about Research Suite and get a free account today.

Come nominate someone who you believe deserves the Sunshine Award!

The Sunshine Award is intended for students who are graduating from Oregon State University or those who are ending their time here with us. We want to honor these students for their hard work and commitment to education and change at OSU. As the sun shines on us all, this will be given to a special QTPOC individual who has shown exemplary efforts in changing the climate of the school regarding the intersections of different identities and aiding in the efforts of other QTPOC students success at the university and in the future. Nominations are due by Friday, May 26, 2018!!!  

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Qualtrics sophisticated online survey software solutions make creating online surveys easy. Learn more about Research Suite and get a free account today.

Come join us and apply for this year’s Lavender Graduation, where we honor and celebrate our LGBTQI+ students of color for their achievements in academia.

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Come on by and dance your midterm worries away! Come to the MU Journey Room and learn about the history of Cuban Salsa and how to dance Cuban Salsa with your friends and other QTIPOC folxs! The last hour will be a social dance and drinks will be available throughout the event. Accommodation requests related to disability can be made before the event to SOL: LGBTQ+ Multicultural Network Support at 541-737-9161 or email [email protected]

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Winter Term Reflection by Julian Chu (SOL Peer Facilitator)

For winter term I really felt more welcomed and in community with not just SOL but with the other centers I have been working with. I feel more connected with my co-workers than I ever had compared to other centers. I really enjoy the closeness and bonds we have made as a staff. I’ve felt more connected than when I was with the Pride center, not saying I didn’t feel connections with them. But with SOL it’s really felt more unique and stronger to me. I’ve also really enjoyed going to other centers, I was already doing that when I was with the Pride center but being able to go to the centers and working with them has been incredible. I’ve been able to get to know the other staff and make connections with them as well learning more about their struggles.

I have also really enjoyed the events I have been planning and what SOL is doing for QTIPOC,  I originally started off planning events for the Pride center that focused on QTIPOC issues. But with that there were a bit of restrictions on how much events we could put out because of the size of the staff. With SOL I was able to focus on QTIPOC and International Queer issues without being limited to the amount of events put on. I feel more belonging and

community than I ever have working with SOL. SOL has allowed me to advocate for what I care about as a QTIPOC as well as make me feel community and belonging that I have been looking for.

Events such as QTIPOC Kickbacks and Study Buddies have also been events I really enjoy since they are recurring and allow a space to study or just hang out and meet new folxs. I have really enjoyed the events that SOL has put on and I am excited to make new events furthering SOL’s goal and contributing to making SOL more inclusive and better. As well I’m excited to be an LL and further see what SOL will become and who will join.

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Join us and listen others' stories, and share your own. We are spilling the tea on white supremacy, and discussing discrimination and social constructs. The event will take place at the Centro Cultural César Chávez on the 1st of May from 5:30 - 7:00 PM. https://www.facebook.com/events/439664773138267/?ti=cl -- - - - - -- - - - - Accommodation requests related to disability can be made before the event to SOL: LGBTQ+ Multicultural Network Support at 541-737-9161 or email [email protected].

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Isa Noyla is a translatina activist, a national leader in LGBT immigrant rights movement, and the deputy director at Transgender Law Center. She works extensively for the release of transgender women from ICE detention and an end to all deportations. She is a part of the #Not1more campaign team and sits on the advisory boards of TAJA coalition, El/La para Translatina, and Familia: Trans, Queer Liberation movement. She has gained the first ever national trans anti-violence convening that brought together over 100 activists, mostly trans women of color, to address the epidemic of violence trans communities are facing. Isa is passionate about building the leadership of transgender communities, especially TWOC who experience high levels of discrimination and violence. She is leading progmmatic strategies to help build a leadership pipeline through the creation of trainings & leadership gatherings to share advocacy tools and strategies Isa believes that a stronger and more vibrant transgender community is possible when we abolish oppressive systems 5hay criminalize all of our communities especially trans and queer communities of color. #SOL #QTIPOC #QUEER #LGBTQ+ #LATINXTRIBUTEMONTH

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

New spotlight! Come check it out at the Pride Center! Funny, cute, cool QTIPOC Comics. #queer #QTIPOC #lgbtq+

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

Elle Hearns is a organizer, speaker, strategist, and writer. Elle’s voice as a community organizer and speaker were formed from her upbringing in Columbus, Ohio as a youth organizer. Ms. Elle is a co-founding member of the Black Lives Matter network an organization formed with multiple local chapters as a political project in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in order to explicitly combat implicit bias and anti-black racism and to protect and affirm the beauty and dignity of all Black lives. In her role before stepping down she was formerly a strategic partner to BLM co-founders Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi and to local chapters of the organization as the former interim Organizing Director advocating for Collaborative Solidarity across the network and Black Liberation movement.

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

‘Word Vomit’

This past term with SOL was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. One part of that experience in particular was after Indigenous Peoples Day. 

I was walking back to the Cesar Chavez Center with coworkers and when we got back, we had a conversation around Mexico and the Indigenous tribes that the majority of us probably had ancestors in and how most latinx people never even thought of that or get offended by the thought of that. Some of the staff had a slight identity crisis, which as a multiracial person, I found kind of humorous. 

Knowing that it’s very likely that I am indigenous, or at least partially, wasn’t that surprising to me. I found it as just another identity, another thing to add to the long, almost novel-sized list of identities that I just happen to have. Now, finding out what tribe I came from is a whole other story and something that to this day I’m still figuring out. 

I guess the tricky part of this native identity that I hold is how to celebrate it. Do I go to powwows? Identify as native? Can I dress as one on special occasions and have it not be offensive? I feel as a white-passing multiracial person, that part is a big concern of mine. That experience and that conversation as a whole opened up those thoughts for me and it’s something that I’ll have to figure out myself.

Hope Trautman - SOL Peer Facilitator

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

“?” - Art by SOL Leadership Liaison 

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

“SOL/Pride Center teams trying to spread the rainbow to the world” - Art by SOL Leadership Liaison

[sol-osu-qtpoc]

“A lot of our beautiful identities and parts of ourselves spiraling together in brilliant ways” - Art by SOL Peer Facilitator

[srsfunny]

Difference Between Equality And Justice

[happyweasel-blog1]

👏 EVERYONE👏 SHOULD 👏 SEE 👏 THIS👏

[neutrois]

HBO's "The Trans List" spotlights personal and powerful trans stories

In a series of intimate interviews, Janet Mock sits down with a diverse group of trans people to hear their personal stories in HBO's "The Trans List."