Virginia Tech's annual Diversity Summit originally focused on race relations since its creation in 1997. This year, the summit -- scheduled to be held on Friday, Jan. 30 -- will turn its focus to the issues facing the LGBT community and will engage students, staff, and community members in a two and a half hour interactive workshop-style seminar to seek ways to further advance the ideals of the Virginia Tech Principles of Community.
The Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity, the Student Government Association and the Office for Equity and Inclusion will host the Summit in Squires Commonwealth Ballroom.
Guy Sims, the assistant vice president for student affairs and member of the commission on equal opportunity and diversity explained, "a lot of times these (Summits) do focus on race, sometimes lesbian and gay issues get folded in with other issues." Sims made the suggestion this year to "let it (LGBT) rise to the forefront."
The Summit aims to bring to the community an opportunity to discuss and challenge some of the issues of interacting with others with a potentially different sexual orientation. According to Sims, the purpose is to "talk about something people might think uncomfortable, something people don't encounter in their everyday lives."
Summit planners hope that attendees will take away "understanding of issues the community tackles on a daily basis are similar to the challenges others face," according to Ray Plaza of the Office of Equity and Inclusion.
Plaza has been working behind the scenes of the Summit to ensure that they have what they need to successfully run a forum that will engage the participants and further the realization that "race, gender, religion, social economic issues... all those things come into play."
The summit will last from 2:30 p.m. until 4 p.m. and will kick off with an introduction by Training, Education and Outreach Program Manager. Daphne Rainey-Wittich.
Then attendees will participate in group activities to get everyone comfortable with tackling the afternoon's issues with each other before the panel discussions begin.
Panel discussions will touch on issues such as Proposition 8 -- legislation regarding the legality of gay marriage -- as well as race relations and religion in the gay community.
The last planned topic for discussion is on building alliances between the LGBT community and the entire Tech community. Sims pointed out that the majority of gay students who come to Tech arrive already having come "out," and so the aim is to create open dialogue about the various lifestyles of students.
Final activities for the Summit will include poetry readings and a conclusion by Kathy Lloyd, the Community Director of Oak Lane.
President of the LGBTA Emily Mauger expressed excitement for the upcoming event. "I think it's great that they are focusing on the community," Mauger said. "(It's) nice to see people taking it seriously."
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The LGBT folks weren't too thrilled to find out that in California, while an overwhelming majority of black voters supported Obama, a sizable majority ALSO voted for Proposition 8 (to ban gay marriage from legal recognition). The anti Proposition 8 forces took the black vote for granted and never figured that in the black community, homosexuality is generally considered an unspeakable activity.
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It wasn't just black voters...hispanic and white too. Conservative religious groups (Evangelical, Catholic, Mormon, Jewish) that supported Prop 8 were well organized, funded and they got the word out. The ad with the SF mayor saying "whether you like it or not" (it will pass) was pretty effective too. 52% voted for / 48% against. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008)
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yea, in Cali I would expect more illegal Hispanic voters than blacks, heck alot of Mexico still thinks that Cali belongs to them and that is also where their drug/ppl transport tunnels end. So there were probably alot of dead ppl voting or since they have occupied that territory for a while probably their kids.
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