On the verge of fall break, a small, intimate group gathered in CUB 106 at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 to feed their brains one last time before going into hibernation. The topic was one which rarely gets talked about—sexual orientation and gender identity.

Leading the discussion for the Safe Zone Training was the co-chair of the GLBT Concern Committee, Jayleen Galarza, who is a professor in the social work and gerontology department. The GLBT Concern Committee is a Shippensburg University faculty organization that focuses on raising awareness of LGBT issues and making changes on campus. GLBT works closely with SAFE, a student-run group whose goal is to create an inviting environment for LGBT students and faculty.

Galarza explained that many students on the SU campus have little knowledge of LGBT issues.

“I was concerned when I overheard a student ask ‘What’s LGBT?’” Galarza said.

The main goal of the Safe Zone Training is to create a more inclusive environment on campus and to provide education.

Freshman Dani Smith came to the session after hearing about it from Dr. Mortimore-Smith.

“I would like to get involved to make this a better place. I wanted to see where we are and where we need to be,” Smith said.

In her Georgetown, Texas high school, Smith was involved in the GSA organization. This group would make trips to known safe places where LGBT students could go if they got kicked out by their family.

To start out the training, Galarza led an activity where students had to write words describing attributes of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals on posters. “LGBT could be expanded to a bazillion letters, it’s like alphabet soup,” Galarza explained. However, she focused on the main four throughout her session.

The majority of the comments written on the posters were common stereotypes such as gays are feminine and lesbians are masculine. Someone even wrote “like a Pokémon trainer” for bisexual since people often think that bisexuals “gotta catch'em all.”

After debunking some of the stereotypes about LGBT people, Galarza shared some other terms used in the community like gender identity and homophobia. Galarza also went on to talk about some of the barriers the LGBT community faces.

“I think the biggest piece is access. The ability to engage in the services they need in a way that is nonjudgmental,” Galarza said.

One common thing heterosexual students and faculty take for granted on campus is the ability to go to the bathroom without being judged.

“It took a year and a half to fight this battle. I’m just happy we have gender neutral bathrooms now,” Galarza said.

Some of these bathrooms can be found in the CUB and Memorial Auditorium. All new buildings are required to have a gender neutral bathroom.

SAFE secretary Jaime Bouder mentioned that lots of things are going on though campus because of the SAFE and GLBT committees. These actions are often taken advantage of since not many are aware of them. One example is the development of a preferred name policy. GLBT is trying to get preferred names to be printed on student IDs and diplomas. Senior Justin Schneider also brought up the point that SU homecoming no longer requires a homecoming king to be biologically male.

At the end of the training session, students wrote down ways they can fight homophobia and signed a petition. Galarza closed by saying GLBT’s overall goal is to “be able to walk around knowing it’s OK to be you.” 

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