Armed with Twitter and open minds, students and staff gathered to discuss the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community.

The African American Cultural and Resource Office (AACRC) hosted a program Thursday night designed to address and correct a lack of communication and support between the black and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer communities at the University of Cincinnati.

Members of the LGBTQ Office were inspired to create the event when they observed that very few black students were visiting the LGBTQ Office and, of those that did, very few also visited the AACRC, said Leisan Smith, program director of the LGBTQ Office.

The focus of the program was to establish a dialogue among attendees, who submitted questions via Twitter. More than 50 students and staff offered their insight regarding the difficulties of being a member of the black community and an LGBTQ community member.

Topics ranging from the heightened pressure to be masculine in the black commity to the effects of the Christian faith led to a spirited discussion among LGBTQ members and allies alike.

When the lack of African American students visiting the LGBTQ Office was addressed directly, the crowd offered up mixed responses.

One attendee said that many memebers of the UC community see the Office as a “white people thing,” while another suggested that the problem was that students believed that they must be LGBTQ to visit the office.

A large portion of the conversation discussed what it means to be an ally and stressed the importance of allies within the black community.
During the discussion, Smith challenged the black students in attendance to start visiting the LGBTQ Office.

“If the white LGBTQ community isn’t doing their work on privilege and racism, I understand that people of color do not feel welcome,” said Becca Hammond, resident coordinator of Daniels Hall.
“Until we have white people talking about what we can do to make the office more open to people of color a lot of this isn’t going to change.”

Offensive terms and phrases were two additional hot topics during the event.

“Is the phrase ‘no homo’ offensive?” tweeted one attendee. The question was met with a firm “yes.”
“It is used to disqualify a group of people,” said one man. “That’s like, for black people, if someone were to say ‘no nappy.’” The comparison prompted laughter and agreement from the crowd.

Black History Month also sparked conversation among attendees. Prominent black individuals who were either LGBTQ memebers or allies.

Those mentioned included poet Langston Hughes or Hollywood director Paris Barclay, as well as members of the civil rights movements in the 60s were brought to the attention of the audience to illustrate the importance of LGBTQ and their allies throughout history.

The purpose of this activity was to highlight the progress that has been made towards integrating the two communities, and show that their are role models in this struggle.
Besides the AACRC and the LGBTQ, several other UC organizations had a hand in organizing the program, including the United Black Students Association, Colors of Pride and the Black Arts Collaborative.

Following the discussion, audience memebers were asked to make pledges of steps they would make towards integrating the community.

Attendees offered up suggestions like paying closer attention to language and encouraging people to visit both the LGBTQ Office and the AACRC.

The pledges will be emailed to all those in attendance, in the hope that the dialogue started by the program will continue in the months that follow.

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The LGBTQ Office is located in Room 565 of the Steger Student Life Center. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
For more information, visit www.uc.edu/lgbtq or call
(513) 556-4329._