Kalayah Frazier
Staff Writer
Students gathered Wednesday in the Quay Davis Executive Board Room for the semester’s fifth installment of the Belongingness Lecture Series.
Director of Multicultural Affairs Daniel Loera introduced the topic “Sexual Identity, Homophobia and Heterosexism.”
Loera talked about acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, and he explained the need for openness and understanding.
“People are (often) discouraged from being their true sexual identity due to the pressures of the outside world,” Loera said. “No one realizes how that could be detrimental to people’s personal experience of trying to find themselves.”
Loera said it is important to create spaces where people feel accepted. For the Wednesday event, he encouraged students to introduce themselves to one another.
Then Loera introduced the first activity. He read out statements, and asked students to go to one side of the room if they agreed and the other side of the room if they disagreed.
The prompts had to do with their feelings and experiences with LGBTQ+ community, and Loera encouraged the participants to talk about their experiences of the activity.
“It’s always nice to be reminded of the realities of other people, especially the people that I’m surrounded by on campus,” said Garrett Gonzales, junior English major. “I get to understand their personal experiences that are sometimes things I can’t relate to and it’s like a safe space for people that get to talk on the topics.”
The event also featured a slideshow that considered the language “heterosexual,” “homophobia,” “coming out,” and more.
“It’s a very good opportunity to learn not only about yourself, but the community around you,” said junior English major Connor Bartlett.
Kalayah Frazier can be reached at kalayah.frazier@laverne.edu.
Kalayah Frazier is a sophomore journalism major with a concentration in print-online journalism. She is calendar editor and a staff photographer for the Campus Times. She has previously served as a staff writer.
