LGBT Center prepares new outreach program
From the Duke Chronicle
By Tiffany Webber
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Gay. Fine by you?
The Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life is gearing up to kick off a new panel program with hopes of increasing awareness and dialogue about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied issues.
The program, which has yet to be named, is also aimed at informing closeted members of the Duke community about the LGBT support resources available to them. The panels will officially begin next semester.
The initiative is a necessary addition to the University, said Paul Naglieri, co-coordinator of the new program and the Residence Coordinator for Kilgo Quadrangle. He acknowledged the University has a perceived reputation for not welcoming the LGBT community.
In 1999, Duke topped Princeton Review’s “alternative lifestyles not an alternative” list. Although the University has dropped out of the category since then, many people believe that issues of intolerance still linger.
“The LGBT population at Duke continues to be the most common recipient of ill-worded comments and overt derogatory behaviors,” Naglieri wrote in an e-mail.
He cited an article in The Chronicle that reported a sexually oriented slur on a Kilgo bulletin board earlier this semester.
“The LGBT Panel program hopes to bring awareness to these issues, as well as to some of the other, more subtle forms of heterosexism, which exist on campus,” Naglieri wrote.
The program will consist of a panel of volunteers who will share personal accounts of LGBT or allied experiences and then field questions from audience members.
“You can imagine if someone is questioning their sexual identity that they might come to the program to see what it was like for other people during their coming-out process and learn more about their identity,” Naglieri said in an interview.
He added that program coordinators are hoping to select a panel of volunteers that represent a “diverse section of the student body.”
The program will help closeted members of the community “know that they are not alone” and will create more visibility for open members of the LGBT community so that they do not feel as marginalized as they do now, Naglieri said.
The new program is not solely aimed at students and will include members from the greater Duke community. Kathryn Wilderotter, a research coordinator in the Office of University Development, plans to participate in the program as a panelist.
Wilderotter said she finds it important for University staff and faculty to feel comfortable with LGBT issues.
“If you sit in a box, and there’s a piece of you that you feel people can’t know, it breaks you down,” she said. “It translates into how well you do your job.”
Both Naglieri and Wilderotter said they welcome all questions, even those that are potentially offensive.
“A lot of people focus on the sex part, not love. A lot of people get hung up on it,” Wilderotter said, adding that some have called the LGBT community sinful.
“I’d rather have people ask than not ask,” Wilderotter said.
Officials at the LGBT Center said they hope to make the new program more “mainstream” than the previous panel program they sponsored, called SpeakOut!. Program officials will contact different organizations and professors from various departments in order to generate awareness about the program.
Naglieri said several campus organizations—including various fraternities, sororities and selective living groups—have already contacted representatives at the LGBT Center and expressed interest in the program.
Similar programs exist at other schools across the nation, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland.
The Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life is gearing up to kick off a new panel program with hopes of increasing awareness and dialogue about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied issues.
The program, which has yet to be named, is also aimed at informing closeted members of the Duke community about the LGBT support resources available to them. The panels will officially begin next semester.
The initiative is a necessary addition to the University, said Paul Naglieri, co-coordinator of the new program and the Residence Coordinator for Kilgo Quadrangle. He acknowledged the University has a perceived reputation for not welcoming the LGBT community.
In 1999, Duke topped Princeton Review’s “alternative lifestyles not an alternative” list. Although the University has dropped out of the category since then, many people believe that issues of intolerance still linger.
“The LGBT population at Duke continues to be the most common recipient of ill-worded comments and overt derogatory behaviors,” Naglieri wrote in an e-mail.
He cited an article in The Chronicle that reported a sexually oriented slur on a Kilgo bulletin board earlier this semester.
“The LGBT Panel program hopes to bring awareness to these issues, as well as to some of the other, more subtle forms of heterosexism, which exist on campus,” Naglieri wrote.
The program will consist of a panel of volunteers who will share personal accounts of LGBT or allied experiences and then field questions from audience members.
“You can imagine if someone is questioning their sexual identity that they might come to the program to see what it was like for other people during their coming-out process and learn more about their identity,” Naglieri said in an interview.
He added that program coordinators are hoping to select a panel of volunteers that represent a “diverse section of the student body.”
The program will help closeted members of the community “know that they are not alone” and will create more visibility for open members of the LGBT community so that they do not feel as marginalized as they do now, Naglieri said.
The new program is not solely aimed at students and will include members from the greater Duke community. Kathryn Wilderotter, a research coordinator in the Office of University Development, plans to participate in the program as a panelist.
Wilderotter said she finds it important for University staff and faculty to feel comfortable with LGBT issues.
“If you sit in a box, and there’s a piece of you that you feel people can’t know, it breaks you down,” she said. “It translates into how well you do your job.”
Both Naglieri and Wilderotter said they welcome all questions, even those that are potentially offensive.
“A lot of people focus on the sex part, not love. A lot of people get hung up on it,” Wilderotter said, adding that some have called the LGBT community sinful.
“I’d rather have people ask than not ask,” Wilderotter said.
Officials at the LGBT Center said they hope to make the new program more “mainstream” than the previous panel program they sponsored, called SpeakOut!. Program officials will contact different organizations and professors from various departments in order to generate awareness about the program.
Naglieri said several campus organizations—including various fraternities, sororities and selective living groups—have already contacted representatives at the LGBT Center and expressed interest in the program.
Similar programs exist at other schools across the nation, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland.
Note to Editors: This story refers to the program My Truth: Stories of Queer Life at Duke