The Pride and Gender Equity Center staff stressed the importance of education surrounding sexuality and gender identity Thursday night at the LGBTQ+ 101: Cultural Experience Gab.

“We want to give people as much information as we can about how these identities affect people in the community,” said Karmen Alicea, peer educator of the PAGE Center. “It fosters a better campus environment.” 

One of the main points that several speakers spent a lot of time on was that transgender and non-binary people often go through different challenges than cisgender people. 

“Transgender people often have very different experiences and need different support than gay and lesbian people,” said PAGE Center employee Mallory Smith. “Although these communities are tied together, they often face different obstacles, whether those are policies or prejudices.” 

“For example, transgender people deal with microaggressions everyday by being constantly misgendered,” said PAGE Center graduate assistant Denise Rodriguez. 

PAGE Center Director Miller Hoffman opened a discussion with audience members about their experiences with gender roles and expectations. 

Another main topic the four speakers focused on was the relationship between gender and biology. 

“Knowing someone’s gender does not mean we know what their body is like or what it should be,” Rodriguez said. 

Throughout the event, there were several slides of terms and their matching definitions. Included in these lists were terms related to sexuality like sexual orientation, romantic orientation, homophobia and heterosexism, as well as terms related to gender like assigned gender, gender expression, transphobia and cissexism. 

Since the last LGBTQ+ Gab in 2024, a few new slides were added based on feedback from attendees, Alicea said. Two of these included an asexual term slide and a gender-neutral bathroom slide. 

“We’re really open to changing our presentation to match the time,” Alicea said. “As the information changes, we’re changing along with it.” 

For PAGE Center speakers like Alicea, events like this are very important for self-expression and education. 

“Being part of PAGE Center events is really important to me because it allows me to both express my gender in front of people and educate people,” Alicea said. 

For several Shippensburg students like senior psychology major Seth Kaufman, the events provide new and helpful information. 

“As someone who also identifies with the LGBTQ+ community, I feel like I don’t know terminology as well as I should,” Kaufman said. 

After the event, Kaufman said he felt more educated on terms regarding gender identity that he didn’t know before. 

For more information about PAGE Center events, visit its Instagram @shippagecenter. 

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