Student Senate Postpones Scheduled Meeting for LGBTQ+ Awareness Training

On Tuesday, February 19th, the Student Senate set aside their usual Tuesday meeting agenda to hold a campus wide LGBTQ+ awareness training, organized by the Senate Leadership Team. Donna Hauer, director of the Multicultural and International Programs and Services (MIPS) office, facilitated the training.

The LGBTQ+ Awareness Training began a multistep process in educating the student governing bodies, faculty and staff  and broader St. Kate’s community on how to be successful allies to the LGBTQ+ community. 

Zaynab Abdi, a member of the Senate Leadership Team emphasized the importance of understanding diverse perspectives.  “In order for [Senate] to advocate for the community, we need to know who the community is and what its needs are,” Abdi said.  “ We can’t advocate for the students when we don’t actually understand the students we are supposedly advocating for.”  

The Senate Leadership Team, whose members include Maakwe Cumanzala, Zaynab Abdi, and KaSua Vue, realized the need to inform members of the St. Kate’s community about the different experiences and identities within  the LGBTQ+ community, since many students may lack previous exposure or knowledge. “At St. Kate’s we don’t have a place or a class where they educate us about, ‘here is how you use pronouns,’ ‘here is how you use gender,’ ‘here are the different definitions you need to know.’ This training gave us that rich information which, for many Senate members, this was their first time learning that,” said Abdi. . The Student Senate intended their training to be an initial first step  in the ongoing effort to foster an accepting campus community. 

Donna Hauer, presenter at the training, said, “I think we assume that people may know more than they might. But are we really providing the opportunity to learn? Well, no. I think this was that opportunity.” 

During the training, Hauer offered foundational information to the audience in hopes of igniting outside conversations and questions. Students present at the training discussed topics such as pronoun use, definitions of gender and orientation terms, and ways to be a good ally. Hauer challenged students to think about the privileges that come with heterosexuality by flipping the coin on the social norms, making the audience imagine having to ‘come out’ to their family, imagining the difficult social, political, and religious implications that come with that decision. She also discussed a brief history of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. 

“What we were trying to do was provide a baseline around definitions,” said Hauer, as she discussed her goals with the training, “The difference between sexual orientation and gender identity, understanding privilege...and I want people to understand that we [the LGBTQ+ community] are so young, yet with a long history.”

While the Leadership Team primarily intended the training to be an educational resource , it also provided an open space for students to learn more about each other, and about how to become better allies for our community members.

Maakwe Cumanzala, Student Senate President and member of the Senate Leadership Team, said, “The biggest takeaway for Student Senate was realizing that our students have a wide variety of life experiences that shape their understanding of LGBTQ+ issues...that people are willing to learn, listen and be open to acknowledging their lack of knowledge. We hope that having this training will make our students think more critically to better lead in the circles they are already influencing.”

 The Senate Diversity Team is now working on creating further LGBTQ+ Awareness Training meetings to be held in the future. Tuesday’s training was the first of a two-part series, the second part focusing on building steps to support students who identify as LGBTQ+. The second part of this training will be open to all students and will be held on March 5th from 4:30-6:00pm. 

“There are so many intersectional identities on our campus,” Cumanzala, said. “The Student Senate wants to let students know that we care and serve all of them.” 

To finish her presentation, Hauer read the poem, Alone After the Party, which discusses the struggles and pain an individual in the LGBTQ+ community faces when coming out.  Below is the last stanza of that poem.

“Cause for the delicate matter of truth n’ honesty

I’ve lost my family, my life, my friends

So I begin to pack up my soul 

Take my thoughts and fold them in 

Yet realizing that the rain that’s a-comin’ 

Is really the tears from within.” 

Last stanza, Alone After the Party, Annonymous (read at training)