Northeastern’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Alliance (GLBTA) attended the annual Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) from February 13th to the 15th. A total of eight GLBTA members attended the conference. This year’s conference was held at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. The MBLGTACC’s main objective is to educate the attendees on gay issues concerning all walks of life. This is usually achieved through various workshops and keynote speakers.
“Civil and Uncivil Rights in the 21st Century”, “Historical GLBT Images in the Media”, and “Does God Hate Fags? What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality” were some of the titles of the workshops the GLBTA attended. The media workshop focused on showing scenes from famous television shows and movies while detailing the advancement of the portrayal of the gay community. Scenes ranging from “Three’s Company” and “Brothers and Sisters” to “Brokeback Mountain” and “Will and Grace” were shown.
The keynote speaker for Saturday night was ESPN senior writer and columnist LZ Granderson. Granderson focused on how gay individuals in sports should come out of the closet while still playing professional sports. He then compared how these individuals could be the Jackie Robinson or Rosa Parks of their time. He also claimed the climate to come out in today’s world is more supportive than ever before. This is supported by the media workshop that stated “… 19 percent of American adults have changed their views favorably towards the gay community in the last five years because they know somebody who is gay.”
Not only did the gay community attend the conference, but also a handful of straight (or alliance) people. Despite the educational objectives, Indiana University made sure to support a warm and welcoming atmosphere to all attendees. This included Indiana University students giving out free hugs. Heather Dean, president of the GLBTA, is quoted as saying, “This conference offers students of all sexual orientation knowledge in ‘gay issues’ effecting the world today. If only this knowledge was common knowledge to the American public, this country would be a more accepting place for the GLBT community.”