Olivia Russo
News Editor
Students gathered Wednesday in a Ludwick Center classroom for another installment of the Belongingness Lecture series. This week’s topic was “Sexual Identity, Homophobia and Heterosexism.”
The lecture started with an introduction by Daniel Loera, director of multicultural affairs, but was led by Alesha Knox, director for cultural programming and black student services.
“I think today really is an area of identity that lots of folks sometimes will run from because of the messaging they’ve received in their life,” Loera said. “I think it’s important who we see ourselves as and be able to talk about all the aspects of our identity.”
To start off, students went around the room sharing their name, pronouns and how comfortable they were with the topic. From there, Knox gave a small introduction as well as some of the key terms and themes the discussion is meant to go over.
“I really want us to just go in the context of thinking about while I’m saying these definitions, it is still a personal preference,” Knox said. “Someone can identify as a male but dress up more feminine, and that is okay. There’s knowing that and there’s space for that.”
Knox introduced the first activity to garner some discussion. Everyone started at the center of the room, symbolizing neutrality. Then she would read out a prompt, motioning to which side of the room would agree or disagree, and students would move accordingly based on their personal experiences.
The prompts covered an individual’s home community and their feelings on the LGBTQIA+ community, the campus and their feelings, as well as personal experiences of being an ally or a member of the community.
After a few prompts, Knox stopped reading and asked everyone if they would like to explain why they are standing where they are, as well as their answers to the other prompts given before.
“Oftentimes, even in places where that’s the type of environment they want to foster, there’s a lot of people who either will descend to it or largely don’t feel comfortable with that kind of environment,” Matthew Marquez, sophomore psychology major, said “I normally error on the side of caution, but I’m very confident with who I am,”
Knox then wrapped up the activity, and moved onto the next portion, which was a type of pop quiz. Everyone returned to their seats, and Knox came around with a sheet of paper with a matching activity on it.
The paper had the definition of terms and the goal was to do the best one can do by themselves to match the terms together. After a short amount of time, people were to partner up with someone else they did not know to go over their answers and discuss the terms.
Once the discussion was brought back to the whole group, members pointed out certain terms and definitions that stood out to them. Terms like ‘transsexual’ and ‘queer’ came up as they were on the paper, but they are terms that have been topics of discussion in LGBTQIA+ community spaces on what their meaning is.
Stacey Strickland, adjunct dance professor, brings up when he was going up the terms gay and queer were used interchangeably, so having to attach each one to a separate definition was more difficult.
“Now, with more consciousness, just learning the nuances and that being given the nuances in between these definitions, I still have some work to do with it,” Strickland said.
After defining the terms, Knox introduces one of the two videos played, which gives a history of pride, however she mentions that the video is years old now and can be outdated with the current administration.
“I don’t even, with full transparency, know how to even have this conversation of seeing all the progress that has happened and knowing that we are taking a lot of steps back. We need to fight, continue to fight, but I’m also sad that all of this work has been done,” Knox said.
The second video was from 2019, which ended on a light note with happiness on the thought of growth and progress. However, Knox mentions that it is outdated and that although the history is good, the ending would be different if it was made today.
Knox wrapped up the conversation by talking about the spectrum of identity and how that is always changing.
The next Belongingness Lecture is titled “Racial Identity and Racism” and will be held at 11 a.m. April 9.
Olivia Russo can be reached at olivia.russo@laverne.edu.
Olivia Russo is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print/online journalism and a minor in criminology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Campus Times for Spring 2026. She has previously served as the News Editor, LV Life Editor, a photographer and a staff writer for the Campus Times, as well as a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine.
